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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


IN  MEMORY  OF 


W.  Winston  Pettus 


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O-v-  C^' 


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Cr---^    Sr*-*>-rV»-  X-  S-vX. 


GLEANINGS    FROM    FIFTY   YEARS 
IN   CHINA 


/A'^'C' 


GLEANINGS 

FROM    FIFTY    YEARS   IN 

CHINA 


BY   THE    LATE 

ARCHIBALD    LITTLE 


AUTHOR    OF 


"THROUGH   THE   YANGTSE   GORGES" 
"TO   MOUNT   OMl   AND   BEYOND" 
"THE    FAR   EAST" 
"ACROSS   YUNNAN" 


REVISED   BY 

Mrs.   ARCHIBALD   LITTLE 


PHILADELPHIA 
J.   B.  LIPPINCOTT   COMPANY 

London:    SAMPSON    LOW,  MARSTON    &   CO.,  LTD. 


C>5 


FOREWORD 

BY    R.    S.    GUNDRY,    C.B. 

The  death  of  Mr.  Archibald  Little,  who  passed  away 
at  Falmouth  in  the  autumn  of  1908,  after  a  long  period 
of  failing  health,  will  be  felt  as  a  loss  not  only  by  his 
friends  but  by  all  who  are  interested  in  China.  For 
his  experience  was  in  some  respects  unique.  A  merchant 
by  the  accident  of  career,  he  was  a  scholar  and  a  traveller 
by  bent  of  character  and  preference.  Others  have  had 
larger  and  more  successful  commercial  relations  ;  others 
have  travelled  more  extensively  ;  others  have  acquired 
a  more  profound  knowledge  of  the  Chinese  language  ; 
others  have  evinced  a  keen  and  sympathetic  insight 
into  the  Chinese  mind  and  turns  of  thought ;  others 
have  recorded  their  experiences  in  thoughtful  and  sym- 
pathetic language.  Mr.  Little's  forte  was  that  he  pos- 
sessed all  these  qualifications  in  a  sufficient  degree  to 
make  him  a  capable  pioneer,  an  interesting  talker,  an 
instructive  writer,  and  a  sympathetic  host  or  guest  with 
educated  Chinese.  I  have  said  that  the  bent  of  his 
mind  and  tastes  was  towards  science  and  travel  rather 
than  towards  commerce  ;  and  circumstances  chanced, 
perhaps,  to  confirm  the  inclination ;  for  he  had  hardly 
arrived  in  China  (under  engagement  as  tea-taster  to  a 
German  firm),  in  1859,  ere  the  hindrance  to  commerce 
caused  by  the  presence  of  the  T'aip'ings  gave  him  leisure 
to  travel  through  the  region  they  occupied,  extending 
from  the  head  waters  of  the  Tsientang  to  the  Poyang 
Lake — a  journey  which  his  knowledge  of  Chinese 
materially  helped  him  to  accomplish.  It  was  perhaps 
the   experience   thus  gained  which  encouraged   him   to 


vi  FOREWORD 

start  on  his  own  account,  in  1862,  at  the  newly  opened 
port  of  Kiukiang,  where  he  created  a  successful  business 
which  he  merged  two  years  later  in  a  new  firm,  Latimer, 
Little  &  Co.,  which  he  assisted  in  founding  at  Shanghai. 
This  was  wound  up  after  a  short  term ;  but  he  continued 
in  business  at  Shanghai,  in  partnership  with  his  brother, 
Mr.  R.  W.  Little,  till  circumstances  led  him,  in  the  early 
'eighties,  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  Upper  Yangtse 
and  Szechuan.  Mr.  Little's  preferred  amusement  was 
yachting,  and  it  may  have  been  to  some  extent  inclination 
which  led  him  to  start  (in  1884)  a  winter  service  between 
Hankow  and  Ichang,  in  the  little  steamer  Y-ling.  Hither- 
to steamers  had  run  above  Hankow  only  in  summer,  but 
Mr.  Little's  example  was  promptly  followed  by  the 
existing  lines,  one  of  which — the  Shanghai  Steam  Naviga- 
tion Company  (since  bought  up  and  merged  in  the  "  China 
Merchants  S.  N.  Co.") — eventually  purchased  or  chartered 
the  Y-ling. 

It  was  now  that  the  most  congenial  (to  himself)  and 
interesting  (to  others)  portion  of  Mr.  Little's  career 
began.  Chungking  was  not  formally  opened  to  foreign 
trade  till  1890,  though  provision  had  been  made  by  Sir 
Thomas  Wade  in  the  Chefoo  Convention  (1876)  that 
British  merchants  might  reside  there  as  soon  as  steamers 
gained  access  to  the  port.  Mr.  Little  established  himself 
there,  however,  in  1887,  and  induced  a  few  friends  to 
join  him  in  building  a  stern- wheel  steamer  with  which 
he  hoped  to  pioneer  the  ascent  of  the  rapids.  The 
Ruling  was,  however,  before  her  time.  The  Convention 
which  declared  Chungking  open  provided  that  traffic 
should  be  carried  on  in  Chinese-built  boats,  and  that 
only  when  Chinese  steamers  should  convey  cargo  to 
Chungking  and  back  might  British  steamers  proceed 
there  on  the  same  footing.  The  Chinese  authorities — 
technically  justified  by  this  clause — refused  to  allow 
the  experiment,  and  he  was  compelled  to  sell  the  Ruling 
to  the  China  Merchants  S.N.  Co.,  by  whom  she  is,  I  believe, 
still  run  successfully  on  the  lower  Yangtse. 


FOREWORD  vii 

The  Treaty  of  Shimon oseki  between  China  and  Japan 
swept  away  these  restrictions,  and  Mr.  Little — 
ambitious  to  be  the  first  to  take  a  British  steamer  up 
the  rapids — designed  and  built,  entirely  out  of  his  own 
resources,  the  little  steam  yacht  Lee-chuen,  with  which 
(accompanied  by  Mrs.  Little,  but  acting  as  his  own  captain 
and  engineer),  he  set  out  from  Shanghai  in  January, 
1898,  to  make  the  attempt.  The  Lee-chuen  s  power 
was  insufficient  to  enable  her  to  surmount  the  worst 
rapids  without  tracking ;  but  he  got  through,  and  received 
a  cordial  welcome  on  reaching  Chungking,  The 
achievement  encouraged  certain  of  his  friends  to  join 
him  in  building  a  more  powerful  steamer,  which  was 
manufactured  (if  we  may  use  the  term)  in  England, 
but  sent  out  and  put  together  in  Shanghai.  The  Pioneer 
was  a  distinct  success,  but  Mr.  Little  had  only  made 
one  trip  in  her,  between  Ichang  and  Chungking  (a.d. 
I  goo),  when  the  Boxer  troubles  led  to  her  being  taken 
up  by  H.M.  Government  to  bring  down  British  subjects 
who  were  held  to  be  in  jeopardy  in  the  remote  regions 
of  the  Upper  Yangtse  ;  and  how  effectually  she  served 
the  purpose  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  she  arrived 
at  Ichang  with  ninety-seven  European  and  sixty  Chinese 
passengers  on  board.  She  was  soon  after  purchased, 
armed,  manned  with  bluejackets,  and  is  plying  still  on 
those  waters  as  H.M.  gunboat  Kinsha. 

It  was  while  engaged  in  his  earlier  trips  on  the  Upper 
Yangtse  that  Mr.  Little  collected  material  for  the  inter- 
esting book  (published  in  1888)  entitled  Through  the 
Yangtse  Gorges,  which  established  his  reputation  as  a 
graphic  and  sympathetic  writer  on  China.  This  was 
followed  some  years  later  (1901)  by  Mount  Omi  and 
Beyond,  which  introduced  us  to  the  little-known  region 
of  Szechuan  on  the  Thibetan  Border  and  to  a  phase 
of  Chinese  life,  untouched  as  yet  by  foreign  intercourse, 
which  his  linguistic  acquirements  and  experience  enabled 
him  to  depict  with  the  perception  and  sense  of  humour 
that  had  delighted  his  readers  in  the  previous  work. 


viii  FOREWORD 

Mrs.  Little  was  his  companion  also  on  this  journey ; 
and  "  Mount  Omi  "  is  embellished  by  excellent  photo- 
graphs taken  by  her  under  frequently  difficult  conditions. 
Mr.  Little's  magnum  opus,  however,  though  like  other 
similar  opera  less  familiarly  known  than  his  books  of 
travel,  is  the  descriptive  work  on  the  geography  and 
geology  of  the  Far  East  undertaken  in  connection  with 
"  The  Regions  of  the  World  "  series  published  at  Oxford 
under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Mackinder.  It  is  upon  this 
work — written,  as  he  says  in  the  preface,  literally  in 
intervals  of  business,  but  with  the  advantages  of  travel 
and  local  observation — that  his  friends  would  be  content, 
probably,  that  his  reputation  as  a  scholar  should  rest. 
When  it  was  published  (in  1905)  he  was  nearing  the  end 
of  his  career,  though  few  who  met  him  during  his  stay 
in  England  at  that  time  would  have  anticipated  that 
the  final  visit  to  China  which  he  was  contemplating 
would  so  fatally  exhaust  vitality  which  had,  it  is  to  be 
feared,  been  heavily  drawn  upon  by  earlier  experiences. 
He  returned  to  England  in  broken  health,  in  1907,  and 
retired  shortly  to  Falmouth,  in  the  hope  that  rest  and 
the  mild  air  of  the  West  country  would  enable  him  to 
resume  the  active  work  which  he  desired.  The  limit 
had,  however,  been  passed.  He  retained  hope  and 
interest  in  affairs  till  nearly  the  end,  but  it  was  evident 
in  the  autumn  of  1908,  that  the  end  was  near ;  and  it  came, 
on  November  5,  peacefully  as  his  friends  would  wish. 

He  had  looked  forward,  among  other  projects,  to 
preparing  for  publication  the  essays  which  have  been 
collected  in  the  present  volume  ;  and  no  one  can  be 
more  conscious  than  those  who  have  set  themselves 
to  carry  out  his  purpose,  how  much  its  execution  has 
suffered  from  the  want  of  his  guidance. 

The  essays  are  varied  in  topic  and  character,  and 
varied  they  must  have  remained  ;  but  he  would  have 
been  able  to  avert  some  repetitions  and  to  impart,  perhaps, 
a  certain  coherence  to  chapters  dealing  with  kindred 
topics  and  regions.     By  no  one  but  the  author,  however. 


FOREWORD  ix 

can  such  a  task  be  safely  undertaken,  especially  where 
full  knowledge  and  ripe  judgment  have  inspired  the  original 
page.  There  is  risk,  even  in  a  touch,  of  marring  or  dis- 
torting the  thought  ;  so  the  papers  have  been  reprinted 
practically  as  he  left  them — to  speak  for  themselves. 

Mrs.  Little  published  separately,  a  few  months  ago, 
a  description,  written  by  him  at  the  time,  of  a  journey 
"  Across  Yunnan "  which  came  with  peculiar  appro- 
priateness in  view  of  the  recent  opening  of  the  French 
Yunnan-Tongking  railway.  Here,  in  the  following  pages, 
are  further  descriptions  of  the  picturesque  West  country 
which  he  made  so  peculiarly  his  own — supplemented 
by  reflections  on  its  natural  resources  and  commercial 
possibilities,  and  on  the  misgovernment  which  stunts 
its  development  and  depresses  the  condition  of  the 
people.  Peculiarly  illustrative,  too,  of  his  familiarity 
with  the  people  and  their  language,  is  his  essay  on  the 
Chinese  drama  and  its  instructive  value  for  the  people, 
who  subscribe  to  pay  for  performances  that  teach  them 
historical  lore  from  which  he  derived  instruction  in 
turn.  Interesting  and  instructive  also,  are  the  hitherto 
unpublished  chapters  on  Missionaries  and  Confucianism, 
which  measurably  complement  each  other  and  bear 
testimony  to  his  faculty  of  sympathetic  insight. 

It  is  possible  that  he  might,  in  course  of  revision, 
have  modified  the  expression  of  his  views  on  specific 
points ;  but  a  recollection  of  frequent  conversations 
and  intimate  intercourse  during  his  stay  in  England 
in  1905,  convinces  me  that  they  were  broadly  un- 
changed. Nor  was  a  mind  that  could  evolve  the 
poem — if  it  may  be  so  characterised — written  "  In 
a  Buddhist  Monastery "  one  likely  or  liable  to 
change.  Inspired  by  high  thought  and  large  tolerance, 
those  lines  are  the  expression,  obviously,  of  a  reflective 
and  philosophical  mind — a  mind  which  had  arrived 
at  conclusions  by  observation  and  through  knowledge, 
and  singularly  qualified,  therefore,  to  compose  such  a 
legend — I   had   almost   written   epitaph — as   the   Abbot 


X  FOREWORD 

desired  to  have  inscribed  on  stone,  in  his  monastery, 
as  a  record  of  their  conversation. 

There  is  in  it,  too,  a  tinge  of  the  dreaminess  which 
was,  to  his  intimates,  a  lovable  feature — some  might 
call  it  a  weakness — of  Archibald  Little's  character.  It  is 
a  quality  which  helped  him,  no  doubt,  to  sympathise  with 
and  conciliate  the  confidence  of  the  Chinese  people ;  for 
he  comprehended  their  joys  and  sorrows  and  appreciated 
their  good  qualities  as  keenly  as  he  criticises  the  short- 
comings of  their  rulers.  It  was  this  perception — added 
of  course  to  his  familiarity  with  the  language — that  opened 
to  him  sources  of  information,  in  literature  and  conver- 
sation, which  enabled  him  to  add  so  many  interesting 
touches  to  the  descriptions  of  travel  in  which  he  excels. 

There  is,  naturally — the  admission  may  be  emphasised 
— occasional  repetition  and  some  little  overlapping  in 
papers  written  independently,  at  intervals  more  or  less 
long.  But  it  was  more  than  difficult,  as  I  have  already 
remarked,  to  eliminate  without  weakening ;  and  stress  is 
laid  on  the  fact  that  each  essay — almost  each  chapter — ^is 
a  separate  production,  in  order  to  ask  that  the  book  be 
regarded  as  the  collection  of  "  Gleanings  "  which  it  pro- 
fesses to  be.  As  such,  they  will,  it  is  believed,  be  welcomed 
by  all  who  were  interested  in  his  previous  writings.  For 
there  are,  here,  the  same  characteristics  of  knowledge  and 
perception — the  same  capacity  for  insight  and  sym- 
pathetic appreciation  that  inspired  his  more  finished  works 
— priceless  qualifications,  rarely  combined,  for  describing 
a  little-known  region  and,  despite  much  voluminous 
writing,  a  little-understood  government  and  people. 

Official  recognition  and  distinctions  have  often  been 
awarded  for  achievements  and  services  less  than  Archibald 
Little  was  able  to  render — for  it  was  the  expansion  of 
British  trade  and  the  honour  of  the  British  name,  rather 
than  personal  profit,  that  he  kept  in  view.  But  he  lived 
and  died  without  any  such  mark  of  honour.  His  friends 
may  in  some  sense  regret  the  omission  ;  but  no  man 
needed  or  coveted  titles  or  decorations  less. 


EDITORIAL    NOTE 

Archibald  Little  was  a  man  of  marked  individuality 
and  force  of  character.  The  eldest  son  of  a  physician, 
whose  name  is  still  honoured  throughout  Europe  and 
America  for  his  original  work  in  certain  branches  of 
surgery  and  pathology,  he  was  born  in  the  city  of  London 
in  1838.  After  a  few  years  at  Saint  Paul's  School,  he  had 
the  good  fortune  to  be  rescued  from  the  purely  classical 
education  to  which  all  public  schools  then  condemned 
their  scholars,  and  was  sent  when  fourteen  years  old  to 
Berlin.  There  he  not  only  learnt  German  thoroughly, 
but  also  received  a  sound  general  education  and  acquired 
methodical  habits  which  stood  him  in  good  stead 
all  his  life. 

During  the  close  on  fifty  years  spent  in  China,  varied  by 
frequent  visits  to  England,  the  following  pages  were  written. 
The  two  Plays  have  not  before  been  published,  nor  two 
other  chapters,  that  on  Missionaries,  and  the  other  largely 
dealing  with  the  same  subject,  but  entitled  Confucianism. 
Of  the  others  several  have  appeared  in  the  North-China 
Herald  and  other  periodicals  in  China,  whilst  Western 
China,  Ex  Oriente  Lux,  Two  Cities,  The  Value  of  Tibet, 
The  Partition  of  China,  The  Dangers  of  the  Upper  Yangtse, 
and  The  Chinese  Drama  have  appeared  respectively  in 
the  Quarterly  and  North  American  Reviews,  the  Fort- 
nightly, Spectator,  Asiatic  Quarterly,  Geographical  Journal 
and  Nineteenth  Century.  To  the  Editors  of  all  these 
periodicals  I  tender  hearty  thanks  for  the  permission  so 
cordially  given  to  reproduce  them,  and  for  the  kind  help 
they  afforded  me  in  tracing  them.  To  some  it  may  seem 
lowering  the  writer's  literary  reputation  to  include  the 


xii  EDITORIAL    NOTE 

earlier  papers,  Yachting  in  the  Chusan  Archipelago  and 
the  Retrospect  of  Events  in  China  for  the  year  1873,  but  to 
this  day  I  have  come  across  no  other  account  of  that 
Archipelago,  and  the  lighthearted  enjoyment  of  this  paper, 
together  with  its  keen  appreciation  of  the  beauties  of 
Nature,  made  me  unwilling  to  set  it  aside  ;  while  the  latter 
article  may  easily  be  useful  to  those  compilers  of  books 
who  seek  contemporary  light  upon  past  events,  shewing 
also  such  a  determined  effort  to  do  the  very  best  for  his 
Society  as  characterised  Archibald  Little  to  the  last, 
when,  although  already  too  ill  for  the  effort,  he  wrote 
the  chapter  on  Confucianism  that  concludes  the  volume, 
to  help  a  cousin  charged  with  providing  a  paper  on  the 
subject  for  a  clerical  society. 

Borrowing  Boots,  the  ancient  Chinese  farce,  translated 
for  home  acting  in  1880,  and  in  later  years  once  performed 
at  the  Queen's  Hall  for  the  benefit  of  the  Anti-Footbinding 
Society  of  China,  well  illustrates  the  article  written  years 
afterwards  for  the  Nineteenth  Century,  and  both  that  and 
the  other  translation.  The  Rat's  Plaint,  originally  issued  by 
Mr.  Hasegawa,  of  Tokyo,  in  a  highly  illustrated  edition  on 
cr^pe  paper,  cast  much  light  upon  Chinese  manners  and 
customs,  as  may  also  be  said  of  Plot  and  Counterplot,  an 
attempt  at  producing  an  original  play  in  the  Chinese  style, 
when  his  mind  was  already  saturated  with  Chinese  lore. 
Reviewers  may  object  to  the  varied  nature  of  the  con- 
tents of  this  volume.  In  truth  it  was  hard  to  hit  upon 
any  subject  in  which  the  author  was  not  vividly  interested, 
and  thus  in  the  loneliness  of  life  up  country  in  China  he 
would  be  absorbed  first  in  one  subject,  then  in  another  ; 
at  one  time  hoping  to  estabHsh  steam  communication 
with  the  West  of  China — which  has  never  ceased  since 
he  led  the  way  in  his  own  little  steamer,  Lee-chuen  ; 
at  another  discovering  a  coal  mine,  and  hoping 
almost  to  the  last  to  get  it  worked  as  a  model  busi- 
ness and  great  regenerating  centre,  where  men  should 
be  paid  for  their  business  work,  and,  if  they  could, 
purify  and  elevate    the   people  around    them ;  without 


EDITORIAL   NOTE  xiii 

any  thought  of  salaries  therefor,  as  also  without  any  inter- 
ferences from  home  Mission  Boards — generally  quite 
incapable  of  appreciating  either  the  conditions  of  the 
workers  in  China  or  of  those  worked  for. 

The  writer's  life,  during  the  twenty-two  years  that  it  was 
shared  by  me,  was  beset  with  troubles  and  anxieties ;  to 
some  indeed  it  may  seem  a  long  series  of  disappointments, 
even  of  failures.  But  he  was  the  first  to  run  steamers 
between  Hankow  and  Ichang  in  winter,  and  the  first  to 
put  a  steamer  upon  the  waters  of  the  Upper  Yangtse,  thus 
opening  out  this  long  stretch  of  inland  navigation  and 
adding  immensely  to  the  amenities  as  also  to  the  safety  of 
residence  in  the  Far  West  of  China  ;  he  discovered, 
obtained  a  concession  for  and  worked  for  a  while  the  best 
coal-mine  in  the  world  after  Cardiff,  until  petty  and 
faithless  obstruction  on  the  part  of  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment made  it  impossible  to  continue.  He  would  never 
carry  on  business  in  any  but  the  very  best  articles,  and 
that  he  succeeded  in  this  was  shewn  by  the  constant 
counterfeiting  of  his  trade  mark  in  later  years. 

The  general  anti-footbinding  movement  of  China  owed 
its  inception  to  him.  He  had  grieved  over  the  agonies 
of  footbinding,  years  before  I  ever  saw  China.  He  inspired 
and  stimulated  all  my  hesitating  efforts  ;  he  first  suggested 
my  interviewing  Chinese  Viceroys  on  the  subject,  then 
facilitated  the  interviews  and  always  readily  spared 
me  for  any  work  the  movement  entailed.  Indeed,  from 
the  moment  I  became  his  wife,  he  always  insisted  that  I 
must  fear  nothing,  neither  danger  nor  fatigue,  whilst  by 
his  side,  never  finding  fault  with,  but  always  applauding 
every  humblest  effort.  Can  we  any  of  us  do  more  for 
one  another  ? 

His  books  speak  for  themselves.  Future  writers  may 
improve  upon  The  Far  East,  here  a  little  and  there  a 
little  ;  no  other  man  could  probably  have  written  the 
original  book  when  he  did,  shewing  how  the  history  of 
the  Far  East  had  been  influenced  by  its  geograph}^  and 
geology  as  was  the  method  of  Mr.  Mackinder's  Kingdoms 


xiv  EDITORIAL    NOTE 

of  the  World  series.  The  Yangtse  Gorges  is  still  the  standard 
work  upon  the  subject,  and  Mount  Omi  and  Beyond  one 
of  the  most  delightful  books  of  travel.  If  Across  Yunyian 
is  less  so,  it  is  from  missing  the  author's  final  touches 
and  additions.  They  are  the  full-eared  sheaves  garnered 
into  volumes.  These  pages  are  the  gleanings  from  a  long 
life  spent  with  Chinese  among  Chinese,  a  life  that  to  the 
last  he  said  had  been  a  happy  life,  nothing  to  complain 
of,  and  very  much  to  enjoy.  Even  at  seventy  he  retained 
the  hopeful,  joyous  character  of  the  boy,  to  the  last 
guileless  and  unsuspecting,  though  with  the  added  kind- 
liness of  years.  The  lack  of  his  intellectual  and  always 
inspiring  companionship  has  made  it  all  the  greater  effort 
to  collect  these  pages  and  write  these  few  lines. 

A.  E.  N.  L. 


CONTENTS 


PART    I 

TRADE    AND    POLITICS 

PAGE 

Western  China  :    its  Products  and  Trade     .  i 

British  Trade  with  China         ....  39 

Ex  Oriente  Lux 51 

Two  Cities  :    London  and  Peking     ...  74 

The  Value  of  Tibet  to  England      ...  92 

The  Partition  of  China 98 

How  to  Register  Your  Trade  Mark       .        .  105 


PART    II 

TRAVEL 

The  Romance  of  Chinese  Travel     . 

A  New  Road 

A  Chinese  Sulphur  Bath 

The    New    Rapid    and    the    arrival    of 

First  Steamer  in  Chungking 
The  Dangers  of  the  Upper  Yangtse 
SzECHUAN  Revisited 
Yachting  in  the  Chusan  Archipelago 
Retrospect  of  Events  in  China 


the 


no 

117 

128 


134 

140 

150 
171 
194 


PART    III 
drama  and  legend 

The  Chinese  Drama    .... 
Borrowing  Boots         .... 


216 
225 


xvi  CONTENTS 

PArK 

Plot   and   Counterplot 251 

The  Rat's  Plaint 274 

PART   IV 

religion  and  philosophy 

In  a  Buddhist  Monastery         ....  286 

Missionaries 289 

Confucianism 309 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

Archibald  Little  Frontispiece 

FACE  PAGE 

Chang  Chih-tung  37 

The  Hua  Lo  at  Michang 59 

Peking  as  a  watch  tower  outside  the  walls  of  the 

Manchu  City 77 

Group  of  Officials  at  Shasi  in  Hupeh  Province      .       103 

Szechuan  ponies  sent  down  to  take  part  in  an  amateur 

Circus  in  Shanghai 126 

S.S.  Pioneer  on  her  first  Voyage        ....       141 

The  First  Rapid  in  the  Upper  Yangtse     .         .         .143 

A  Quiet  reach  in  the  Upper  Yangtse         .         .         .       147 

Officers  of  the  Chinese  Police  Force        .         .         .165 

Temple  at  Poo-Too  with  Bridge  and  Lotus-Pond     .       179 

Buddhist  Nuns         ........       192 

Chinese  Actors 220 

Prostration  before  the  Boots      .....       236 

Literary  Official  reviewing  troops  in  West  China     .       256 

The  Fortification  Staff,  British  Legation,  Peking, 

1900    ..........       289 

Chinese  Mandarin  on  his  travels  about  to  step  out 

of  Sedan  Chair 302 


GLEANINGS  FROM   FIFTY  YEARS 
IN   CHINA 

Part  I :  Trade  and  Politics 

WESTERN   CHINA:    ITS   PRODUCTS   AND 

TRADE 

Western  China  is  no  longer  the  terra  incognita  from 
which,  until  quite  recently,  rare  travellers  alone  lifted  the 
veil  at  long  intervals,  to  be  followed  by  relapses  into 
absolute  seclusion.  Since  the  outbreak  of  the  great 
Mahometan  revolt  in  1856,  and  the  subsequent  establish- 
ment of  a  Panthay  Sultan  in  Ta-li-fu,  up  to  the  present 
day,  public  attention  has  been  increasingly  directed  to 
this  region,  until  now  an  extensive  literature  has  grown 
up  around  it.  Its  latent  resources  and  its  actual  trade 
not  seldom  form  the  theme  of  economists  and  news- 
writers,  while  the  interest  felt  in  the  great  Chinese  race 
is  now  so  general,  that  no  apology  is  any  longer  needed  for 
approaching  what  was  once  a  recondite  subject,  and  for 
presenting  to  the  general  reader  fresh  pictures  of  the 
varied  regions  that  go  to  make  up  the  Empire  of  China. 
If  it  cannot  be  said  literally  of  a  lady  of  fashion  of  our  day, 
as  was  said  in  Juvenal's  Rome, — 

"  Haec  eadem  novit  quid  toto  fiat  in  orbe. 
Quid  Seres  quid  Thraces  agant," 

at  least  the  spirit  of  enquiry  is  abroad,  and  the  metropolis  of 
the  modem  world  is  as  anxious  for  news  from  beyond  the 
pale  of  European  civilisation  as  it  is  dependent  upon 
these  outlying  regions  for  the  daily  supply  of  its  material 
wants.     China  alone  rivals  the  wide  British  dominion  in 


2  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

populousness  and  in  the  industry  and  activity  of  its 
inhabitants,  and  every  step  that  brings  us  nearer  together 
is  deserving  of  careful  record  and  attention.  Progress  in 
this  direction  is  necessarily  slow,  but  so  far  it  has  been 
persistent.  We  cannot  force  the  ultra-conservatism  of 
the  Chinese  with  a  rush  ;  we  must  make  up  our  minds 
to  a  long  siege,  and  be  content  to  sit  down  before  the 
walls  watching  for  every  opportunity,  and  not  failing  to 
make  the  most  of  each  one  as  it  occurs.  China  holds 
geographically  a  position  on  the  Eurasian  Continent 
analogous  to  that  of  the  United  States  on  the  American 
Continent,  while  in  actual  area  and  in  the  extent  of  her 
natural  resources  she  even  exceeds  the  possibilities  of  the 
Great  Republic.  But  her  resources  lie  largely  unde- 
veloped, and  her  means  of  intercommunication  are  still 
lamentably  deficient.  With  continued  peace,  and  a  conse- 
quent growth  of  confidence  in  the  goodwill  and  in  the  aims 
of  the  European  nations  that  now  touch  her  frontiers,  and 
with  whom  she  has  only  so  recently  become  acquainted, 
we  may  expect  many  changes  in  advance  in  the  coming 
generation.  What  has  been  done  in  this  respect  in  the 
past  generation  many  writers  have  tried  to  describe  to  us. 
Of  the  eighteen  provinces  of  China  proper,  Szechuan  is 
the  largest  and  the  finest,  and,  until  quite  recently,  was 
that  least  known  to  Europeans.  Marco  Polo  was 
the  first  traveller  who  gave  any  description  of  Western 
China  to  the  outside  world,  but  his  memoirs  lay  practically 
dormant  and  discredited  until  resuscitated,  only  a  few 
years  back,  in  the  admirable  edition  of  his  travels  pub- 
lished by  the  late  Colonel  Yule.  The  story  of  the  adven- 
turous journey  of  the  Abbe  Hue  and  Father  Gabet  in  1844 
across  China  to  Lhassa  was  the  next  to  tell  us  of  the 
richness  and  beauty  of  this  distant  land.  In  1861, 
Captain  Blakiston,  in  his  attempted  expedition  from 
Shanghai  to  Tibet,  traversed  the  province  of  Szechuan  as 
far  west  as  Ping-shan,  the  head  of  navigation  on  the 
Upper  Yangtse,  and  incidentally  gave  us  a  peep  into  the 
wealth  and  populousness  of  the  West.     The  late  T.  T. 


WESTERN    CHINA  3 

Cooper  followed  a  few  years  later  over  the  same  ground, 
and,  though  foiled  in  his  endeavour  to  get  beyond  Bathang, 
he  has  left  us  an  amusing  picture  of  the  people  in  his 
Pioneer  in  Pigtails  and  Petticoats.  The  expedition  of 
Margary  in  1875  may,  however,  be  said  to  mark  the  era 
of  the  real  commencement  of  a  practical  interest  in  this 
region,  and  the  rise  of  a  sustained  endeavour  to  render  it 
available  as  a  field  for  European  enterprise.  In  that 
year  the  Indian  Government,  in  a  laudable  anxiety  to 
open  up  a  trade  route  through  Burmah  to  South-Western 
China,  despatched  an  expedition,  under  Colonel  Horace 
Browne,  to  proceed  via  Bhamo  to  Yunnan-fu. 

Margary,  an  officer  in  the  British  Consular  service 
in  China,  was  deputed  to  meet  the  expedition  from 
the  China  side,  and  to  act  as  its  interpreter,  and 
guide  it  across  the  frontier.  He  proceeded  through 
the  province  of  Yunnan  in  safety,  and  met  Colonel 
Browne  at  his  halt  in  the  wild  Kakhyen  country,  mid- 
way between  Bhamo  and  Ta-li-fu,  but  on  returning 
to  China  to  announce  the  advent  of  the  expedition 
he  was  foully  murdered  at  a  place  called  Momein  or 
Teng-yueh-chow,  a  town  situated  on  the  head  waters  of 
the  Salween,  some  distance  within  the  Yunnan  frontier. 
The  fact  of  his  having  been  murdered  by  Chinese  soldiers, 
— stabbed  in  the  back  without  any  quarrel  or  fracas, — 
coupled  with  that  of  the  hostile  attack  by  w^ell-armed 
Kakhyens  and  Chinese  the  following  day  on  Colonel 
Browne's  party,  which  was  only  saved  from  total  destruc- 
tion by  the  determined  stand  made  by  his  Sikh  guard, 
leaves  little  doubt  that  the  Chinese  Government  instigated 
the  opposition,  leaving  the  local  authorities  to  devise  the 
means.  This  is  an  old  story  in  our  intercourse  with  the 
Chinese.  The  Central  Government,  driven  into  a  comer, 
gives  a  reluctant  assent  to  the  general  proposition,  and 
then  sets  to  work  to  defeat  its  consequences  in  detail. 
And  in  this  case,  as  in  many  others,  the  tortuous  policy 
has  succeeded.  Although  Bhamo  has  since  fallen  into 
our  possession  by  the  conquest  of  Upper  Burmah,  and 


4  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

the  British  Indian  frontier  now  marches  coterminous  with 
the  Chinese,  no  further  steps  to  improve  this  route  have 
yet  been  taken. 

The  investigation  into  the  facts  of  Margary's  murder 
was  undertaken  by  Messrs.  Grosvenor  and  Baber,  who, 
in  accordance  with  the  agreement  entered  into  by  our 
Minister  in  Peking  with  the  Chinese  Government, 
were  ordered  to  make  inquiries  on  the  spot.  This 
expedition  gave  us  further  valuable  knowledge  of  the 
country  in  their  journals  and  in  the  Blue-books  which 
resulted,  while  leaving  little  doubt  that  the  murder  was 
the  result  of  an  atrocious  plot  on  the  part  of  the  Yunnan 
Viceroy.  The  demand  of  our  Government  for  redress 
ended  in  a  meeting  to  discuss  the  matter,  held  in  Chefoo, 
between  Sir  Thomas  Wade  and  the  trusted  counsellor 
and  envoy  of  the  Chinese  Government,  Li  Hung-chang. 
The  representative  of  the  British  Government,  fortified  b}/ 
the  report  of  the  Grosvenor  Commission  of  Enquiry, 
originally  demanded  an  examination  into  the  conduct 
of  the  Yunnan  Viceroy,  Tsen  Yii-ying,  in  whose  juris- 
diction the  murder  had  been  committed,  but  he  ulti- 
mately yielded  to  the  representations  of  Li  as  to  the 
impossibility  of  the  Chinese  Government  putting  a  Viceroy 
on  his  trial,  and  accepted  the  compromise  known  as  the 
Chefoo  Convention.  By  this  Convention,  which  was 
signed  at  Chefoo  in  the  summer  of  1876,  the  Chinese 
paid  10,000/.  blood  money  to  the  relatives  of  the  murdered 
consular  agent,  and  agreed  to  open  five  new  ports  to 
foreign  trade,  of  which  Pakhoi  on  the  west  coast  of  Kwang- 
tung,  Wen-chow  in  Fu-kien,  with  Wu-hu  and  I-chang  on 
the  Yangtse  river,  were  opened  unconditionally.  Not  one 
of  these  ports  has,  so  far,  justified  by  its  trade  the  main- 
tenance of  the  Consul  which  its  opening  to  British  residents 
has  been  held  to  necessitate.  The  last  concession,  and 
in  our  opinion  the  only  valuable  one  of  the  whole,  was  the 
opening  of  Chungking  as  soon  as  it  should  have  been  proved 
accessible  to  steamers.  This  most  unfortunate  "  condition 
precedent  "  robbed  the  only  real  equivalent,  offered  for 


WESTERN    CHINA  5 

our  abandonment  of  the  demand  that  Margary's  murderers 
should  be  brought  to  trial,  of  half  its  value,  while  it  opened 
the  door  to  that  endless  quibbling  in  which  Chinese  diplo- 
matists are  past  masters. 

Such  as  it  was,  the  convention  was  signed.  The 
fleet  that  had  been  sent  north,  threatening  the  Chinese 
with  reprisals  should  they  persist  in  their  refusal  to 
punish  Margary's  murderers,  was  withdrawn,  and  in  due 
course  the  new  ports  were  opened.  So  insignificant  are 
the  regions  which  they  serve,  that,  up  to  the  date  of 
writing  these  pages,  these  four  new  ports  combined  only 
give  occupation  to  five  resident  European  merchants, 
and  of  these  five  three  are  Germans.  Little  attention 
was  paid  to  Chungking,  the  "  condition  precedent " 
being  considered  too  onerous  and  too  risky  for  any  prudent 
merchant  to  run.  In  order  to  be  allowed  eventually 
to  settle  in  the  port,  he  must  first  build  a  steamer  fit  to 
navigate  the  rapids,  then  get  permission  for  her  to  run, 
and  if  he  succeeded  in  getting  up  to  Chungking  and  back 
without  mishap,  he  would  still  have  to  wait  an  indefinite 
time  for  the  practical  result.  For  thus  ran  the  wording 
of  this  celebrated  negatively-worded  convention  : — 

"  British  merchants  will  not  be  allowed  to  reside  in  Chungking 
or  to  open  establishments  or  warehouses  there  so  long  as  no 
steamers  have  access  to  the  port.  When  steamers  have  succeeded 
in  ascending  the  river  so  far,  further  arrangements  can  be  taken 
into  consideration." 

But  what  if  he  lost  his  steamer  in  the  first  attempt  ? 
The  Chinese  might  easily  assert  that  this  fact  proved  the 
river  not  to  be  navigable,  and  so  endeavour  to  dispose  of 
the  question  once  for  all.  Even  if,  backed  up  by  a  minister 
in  Peking,  of  more  energy  and  determination  than  falls 
to  the  share  of  the  average  oificial,  he  should  succeed  in 
obtaining  permission  to  make  a  second,  or  a  series  of 
attempts,  where  was  the  man  of  business  possessed  of  the 
inexhaustible  resources  that  might  be  needed  ?  In  this 
way  Chungking  was  forgotten,  and  the  Convention  gener- 
ally regarded  as  one  more  of  the  many  sham  triumphs  of 


6  GLEANINGS    FROM   CHINA 

a  diplomacy  content  to  rest  on  the  practical  successes  of 
a  past  and  more  vigorous  generation.  At  length,  in 
1883,  I  made  a  journey  up  to  Chungking,  subsequently 
described  in  Through  the  Yangtse  Gorges,  and  was 
so  much  impressed  with  the  capabiHties  of  the  region  that 
on  my  return  I  set  to  work  to  get  it  opened  up.  A  pre- 
liminary application  for  permission  for  a  steamer  to  run, 
made  at  my  request  to  the  Tsung-li  Yamen  by 
the  then  British  Charge-d'affaires  in  Peking,  Mr.  N.  R. 
O'Connor,  produced  a  favourable  although  somewhat 
indefinite  reply.  I  felt,  however,  so  far  encouraged 
to  proceed  that,  failing  to  find  the  required  support  in 
China,  I  came  to  England  in  1885  in  the  hope  of 
arousing  public  interest  here.  For,  strange  as  it  may 
seem,  European  residents  in  China  are  somewhat  sceptical 
of  the  benefits  derivable  from  new  ports.  They  are  not 
unnaturally  wholly  absorbed  in  their  own  special  business, 
in  which  too,  as  a  rule,  all  their  available  capital  is  engaged, 
A  new  port  in  their  neighbourhood  takes  away  some 
business  from  the  old-established  firms  at  the  existing 
ports,  and  often  compels  them  in  self-defence  to  incur  the 
expense,  risk,  and  labour  of  establishing  a  branch  at  the 
rival  entrepbt.  Although  there  is  indisputable  evidence 
that  the  general  trade  between  Great  Britain,  her  colonies, 
and  China,  besides  the  profits  in  the  new  carrying  trade 
thereby  opened  up  to  British  vessels,  is  largely  increased 
by  the  admission  of  new  regions  to  the  rank  of  a  privileged 
"  treaty  port  "  ;  yet  much  of  the  produce,  that  formerly 
came  to  the  old  port,  may  now  find  its  way  to  the  new, 
while  native  buyers,  if  they  find  their  wants  supplied 
nearer  home,  will  cease  to  make  the  more  distant  journey 
to  the  original  mart.  Hence  the  lack  of  enthusiasm  in 
progress  in  China  on  the  part  of  those  supposed  to  be  most 
interested,  which  is  a  surprise  at  first  until  we  remember  how 
strong  is  the  conservatism  of  vested  interests,  with  their 
rooted  antipathy  to  any  change  that  may  disturb  them. 

But    here    in    Britain    the    case    stands    differently : 
Manchester  cares  not  whom  she  sells  to,  and  the  more 


WESTERN    CHINA  7 

marts  are  open  to  her  wares,  the  more  she  rejoices  ;  Glas- 
gow, too,  finds,  in  new  ports,  new  routes  for  her  steamers 
and  new  openings  for  her  indefatigable  citizens.  And  it 
was  in  these  centres  of  our  trade  that  was  found  the 
main  support  of  the  scheme.  A  small  company  was  formed, 
entitled  the  Upper  Yangtse  Steam  Navigation  Company, 
which  in  1887  despatched  from  the  Clyde  their  pioneer 
steamer  the  Ruling,  a  sternwheeler  designed  to  navi- 
gate the  rapids  above  Ichang,  and  so  open  out  the  road 
to  Chungking.  But  after  returning  to  China  the  real 
difficulties  commenced.  Whether  the  Tsung-li  Yamen, 
or  Chinese  office  for  foreign  affairs,  felt  themselves 
entrapped  into  their  original  assent  by  Mr.  O'Connor  and 
so  determined  to  back  out  of  it  at  all  hazards,  or  whether 
they  really  feared  the  resistance  of  the  local  authorities 
to  the  carrying  out  of  the  Chefoo  Convention  as  far  as 
Chungking  was  concerned,  it  is  needless  to  decide.  Suffice 
it  to  say,  from  the  day  of  the  arrival  of  the  steamer  in 
Ichang,  February,  1888,  to  the  day  of  her  sale  to  the  Chinese 
Customs  in  December,  1889,  the  Chinese  authorities,  both 
central  and  local,  exerted  every  artifice  for  delay  that  a 
crafty  people  could  devise,  or  a  British  Minister  over 
anxious  to  stand  well  in  their  good  graces  would  submit 
to.  We  were  referred  about  from  Peking  to  Ichang 
and  back  again  without  being  able  to  get  possession  of 
the  repeatedly  promised  permit  to  run.  It  was  granted 
at  last  in  Peking,  subject  to  confirmation  by  the  local 
officials,  with  whom  it  seemed  that  now  nothing  further 
remained  to  be  done  but  to  draw  up  simple  rules  for  the 
navigation,  for  which  ostensible  purpose,  certain  "  Wei- 
yuen,"  or  deputies,  were  sent  to  meet  and  arrange  with 
the  British  Consul  and  myself  at  Ichang  in  the  early 
part  of  the  year  1889,  and  there  to  hand  over  formally  the 
hitherto  intangible  document  which,  it  was  alleged  in 
Peking,  had  already  been  despatched  to  Ichang  for  that 
purpose. 

The  Central  Government  had  already  exhausted  their 
reasons  why  the  steamer  should  not  be  allowed  to  run. 


8  GLEANINGS   FROM    CHINA 

Despatch  after  despatch  had  detailed  to  the  British 
Minister  the  impediments  that  would  inevitably  be  met 
with,  and  for  which  the  Tsung-li  Yamen  protested  in 
advance  that  they  would  not  be  held  responsible.  The 
dangers  besetting  the  path  of  an  explorer  upon  the  450 
miles  which  separate  the  haven  of  Ichang  from  the  goal, 
Chungking,  were  depicted  in  most  forbidding  language. 
Not  alone  the  irate  junkmen  and  trackers  would  sink  the 
steamer  by  collisions,  but  the  monkeys,  on  their  preci- 
pices in  the  long  gorges,  would  resent  the  intrusion  of  the 
strange  apparition  into  their  domain  by  hurling  down 
rocks  on  her  devoted  decks.  All  these  the  Chinese  Govern- 
ment expressed  themselves  powerless  to  control.  Now 
that  the  "  Deputies,"  or  High  Commissioners,  had  arrived 
in  Ichang,  professedly  to  make  arrangements  for  the  com- 
ing voyage  of  the  Ruling,  they  put  forward  the  danger 
to  the  junks  as  the  chief  obstacle,  and  proposed  all  kinds 
of  impossible  rules,  evidently  with  the  sole  object  of  pro- 
curing delay.  In  order  to  remove  all  pretext  for  further 
delay,  we  offered  to  pay  the  value  of  all  junks  the 
steamer  might  run  down,  whether  the  steamer  were  in  the 
right  or  in  the  wrong,  and  to  enter  into  a  bond  giving 
security  for  the  payment  of  such  sums  as  might  be  adjudi- 
cated as  due  to  the  sufferers  by  collision  both  in  life  and 
property.  This  offer  was  telegraphed  to  Peking,  but 
without  result.  The  Chinese  had  determined  the  steamer 
should  not  go  ;  and  when  one  pretext  after  another  was 
set  aside,  they  finally  avowed  that  the  Government  would 
not  permit  steamers  and  junks  to  navigate  the  river 
simultaneously.  Their  final  condition  was  that  two  days 
in  each  month  should  be  set  aside  for  the  steamer's  exclus- 
ive use  of  the  river,  during  which  days  the  junks  should  be 
tied  up  to  the  bank.  This  preposterous  clause  would  have 
made  of  a  run  to  Chungking  a  three  months'  voyage  at 
least.  Though  seriously  put  forward,  it  was,  of  course, 
never  meant  to  be  accepted  seriously.  In  short,  the 
proposal  was  so  absurd  that  it  had  the  desired  effect  of 
breaking  off  the  negotiations  in  Ichang,  and  thus,  after 


WESTERN    CHINA  9 

three  months  wasted,  the  farce  of  the  Ichang  Convention, 
so  called,  came  to  an  end.  The  British  Minister  in  Peking, 
Sir  John  Walsham,  refused  to  give  the  Chinese  notice 
that  after  a  certain  date  he  should  authorise  the  steamer 
to  start  and  that  he  looked  to  the  authorities  to  see  that 
she  was  not  molested.  This  simple  course  which  would 
most  certainly  have  been  adopted  a  generation  back, 
and  which  was  strongly  pressed  upon  the  Minister, 
appeared  not  to  be  in  accordance  with  modern  diplomatic 
ideas,  and  the  opportunity  was  lost.  For  the  more  our 
diplomatists  get  involved  in  correspondence  with  an 
astute  people  like  the  Chinese,  the  more  hopeless  does  their 
position  become. 

At  last  the  Chinese  proposed  to  secure  themselves  a 
respite  by  purchasing  the  corpus  delicti  of  the  diplomatic 
struggle,  and  so  temporarily  putting  an  end  to  it.  This 
solution  was  eagerly  seized  upon  on  all  sides.  It  conceded 
no  principle  ;  it  was  a  purely  private  transaction,  and  it 
gave  everybody  a  breathing  time  after  a  wrangle  in  which 
all  concerned  were  worn  out.  Thus  the  proverbial 
patience  of  the  Chinese  triumphed  over  the  impatience 
of  the  barbarian,  and  the  tortoise  once  more  got  the  better 
of  the  hare.  The  legation  officials  in  Peking  were  sick 
of  the  whole  business  after  the  impasse  they  had  arrived 
at,  and  the  shareholders  in  the  steamer  had  reached  the 
end  of  their  resources.  The  abortive  congress  of  Chinese 
and  British  officials,  at  Ichang,  broke  up  in  May,  1889, 
and  in  December  of  that  year  the  steamer  Ruling  finally 
changed  hands  ;  the  interval  having  been  occupied  in 
vain  attempts,  by  the  British  Minister  in  Peking,  to  obtain 
a  serious  reply  to  his  repeated  request  that  the  Ruling 
should  be  allowed  to  run.  Lord  Salisbury,  we  are  told, 
pressed  the  Chinese  to  fulfill  the  convention  of  1876  with 
persistent  vigour,  and  did  not  fail  to  urge  our  Minister  in 
China  to  bring  matters  to  a  conclusion.  But  the  Chinese 
are  past  masters  in  the  diplomatic  art,  and  instantly 
perceive  how  far  an  antagonist  is  likely  to  push  matters. 
Having  found  that  we  are  no  longer  likely,  as  in  the  old 


lo  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

days,  to  push  matters  to  extremes  in  case  of  refusal,  they 
now,  when  an  unpalatable  concession  is  demanded,  take 
refuge  in  a  non  possumus  and  in  absolutely  shameless 
procrastination.  They  had  pursued  this  policy  in  the 
Tibetan  Question  for  years  successfully,  and  they  did  the 
same  in  this  Upper  Yangtse  business.  So,  when  the  offer 
for  the  steamer  was  telegraphed  to  London  to  the  owners, 
we  hear  that  the  Foreign  Office,  who  were,  of  course,  in- 
formed of  the  offer  and  consulted  on  the  matter,  decidedly 
approved  of  its  being  accepted,  believing  that  negotiations 
would  go  on  more  expeditiously  with  the  steamer  out 
of  the  way.  And,  in  truth,  no  sooner  was  the  steamer 
gone,  than  a  counter-proposition  appears  to  have  been 
put  forth  by  the  Chinese — on  the  one  hand,  to  open  the 
port  of  Chungking  at  once,  without  waiting  for  the  proof 
of  the  navigability  of  the  river,  which  was  the  "  condition 
precedent  "  set  forth  in  the  ambiguous  Chefoo  Convention  ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  access  to  the  long-sought  goal 
was  denied  to  British  steamers  until  the  Chinese  them- 
selves had  led  the  way.  An  immediate  advantage,  in  the 
admission  of  foreign  goods  into  Szechuan  upon  payment 
of  one  import  duty  in  Shanghai,  was  conceded,  while  the 
implied  right  to  run  steamers  forthwith  through  to  Chung- 
king was  withdrawn. 

These  terms  having  been  accepted  by  our  Government, 
it  remained  then  to  be  seen  how  long  it  would  be  before 
Chinese  steamers  commenced  to  run.  In  the  meantime, 
the  admission  of  Chungking  to  the  rank  of  a  "  Treaty 
Port  "  undoubtedly  led  to  a  considerable  increase  in  the 
consumption  of  British  manufactures  in  Szechuan  and 
Western  China,  as  a  result  of  the  abolition  of  all  interven- 
ing transit  dues  from  the  coast ;  but  for  the  further 
cheapening  of  the  cost  resulting  from  the  substitution 
of  steam-  for  man-power,  we  had  still  to  wait  till  the 
Japanese  cleared  the  way  for  themselves  and  other  nations 
by  their  war  with  China.  The  thin  end  of  the  wedge  had 
however  been  inserted,  and,  from  this  time  on,  we  expected 
to  see  the  revivifying  effect  of  foreign  intercourse  as  potent 


WESTERN    CHINA  ir 

in  Western  China  as  it  had  been  on  the  eastern  seaboard. 
There,  as  in  all  regions  where  Chinese  come  under  our  rule 
or  influence,  wages  advance,  and  the  people  are  better 
housed  and  clad,  while  a  general  air  of  prosperous  activity 
prevails.  But  away  from  this  influence,  alike  in  Peking, 
the  capital  in  the  far  north,  and  in  Yunnan,  the  province 
bordering  on  our  Burmese  possessions,  stagnation  and 
decay  fill  the  traveller  with  pity  and  bewilderment. 

All  travellers  through  this  region  are  unanimous  on 
two  points  :  one,  the  richness  of  the  resources  and  the 
natural  wealth  of  Western  China  ;  the  other,  the  rudi- 
mentary condition  of  its  material  development,  and  the 
(shall  we  say — consequent  ?)  deep  poverty  of  the  greater 
number  of  its  inhabitants.  Taking  Western,  or  rather 
South- Western,  China  as  consisting  of  the  three  provinces 
of  Szechuan,  Kweichow,  and  Yunnan,  we  find  it  comprises 
an  area  of  340,000  square  miles,  or  about  20,000  square 
miles  more  than  the  combined  area  of  Great  Britain, 
Ireland,  and  France.  Its  aggregate  population  is  esti- 
mated at  about  80,000,000,  or  much  the  same  number  as 
find  subsistence  over  the  corresponding  area  in  Europe. 
But  in  China  the  bulk  of  this  population  is  concentrated 
in  the  fertile  lowlands  of  Eastern  Szechuan,  which  pro- 
vince appears  to  be  hopelessly  congested  with  a  population 
of  sixty  odd  millions ;  while  the  two  provinces  of  Kweichow 
and  Yunnan  are  credited  with  barely  twenty  millions 
between  them.  The  much-needed  migration  does  go 
forward  to  a  small  extent ;  but  it  is  hindered  by  the  want 
of  roads,  and  the  reluctance  of  the  Government  to  facili- 
tate mining  enterprise,  except  when  organised  as  a  purely 
official  undertaking.  Hence  the  settlement  of  these  two 
provinces,  which  have  been  largely  cleared  of  their  original 
inhabitants  during  the  past  two  decades,  proceeds  but 
slowly. 

The  causes  of  these  clearances  were  :  the  well-known 
Panthay  rebelHon  in  Yunnan,  which  resulted  in  the 
practical  extermination  of  its  Mussulman  population  ; 
and  the  insubordination  of  the  "  Miao-tse,"  the  aboriginal 


12  GLEANINGS   FROM    CHINA 

population  of  Kweichow,  which  has  led  to  their  being 
mostly  killed  off  from  the  northern  half  of  the  province  ; 
scattered  remnants  having  alone  escaped  to  the  more 
inaccessible  regions  in  the  south.  These  interesting  and 
by  no  means  uncivilised  peoples  seem,  like  their  Mahom- 
edan  fellow-subjects  in  Yunnan,  to  have  been  goaded 
into  rebellion  by  the  exactions  and  breaches  of  faith 
practised  upon  them  by  the  provincial  officials.  These 
men,  whose  aim,  with  a  few  honourable  exceptions,  is 
simply  to  pass  their  three  years'  term  of  office  in  peace 
and  quietness,  while  amassing  as  much  wealth  as  can  be 
squeezed  out  of  their  district  in  this  limited  period,  are 
merciless  in  the  face  of  any  opposition  on  the  part  of  the 
people.  Held  responsible  for  results,  and  at  a  distance 
which  takes  months  for  a  despatch  to  the  Central  Govern- 
ment to  cover,  the  means  are  their  own  affair  ;  and  as  a 
local  Viceroy  had,  until  quite  recently,  but  a  very  limited 
amount  of  physical  force  at  his  back,  he  felt  obliged  to 
maintain  his  prestige  by  severity,  and  to  crush  ruthlessly 
disaffection  in  the  bud — a  policy  usually  successful.  But 
the  present  instances  formed  exceptions  to  the  rule  ; 
and  the  knowledge  that  no  quarter  would  be  given,  com- 
pelled the  unfortunate  Mahomedans  to  fight  out  the 
struggle  to  the  bitter  end.  The  final  catastrophe  was  the 
surrender  of  Ta-li-fu,  then  the  Panthay  capital,  and 
consequent  extermination  of  its  inhabitants,  men,  women 
and  children  alike,  by  the  sword  and  by  drowning  in  its 
lovely  lake.  General  '  Yang,'  who  commanded  the 
Imperial  forces  at  the  time,  was  said  to  have  amassed  six 
million  taels — about  a  million  and  a  quarter  sterling — for 
his  own  share  of  the  plunder  ;  and  we  well  remember 
meeting  the  ruffian,  who  was  returning  home  by  the 
Messageries  coasting  steamer  with  six  wives,  laid  out  on 
the  cabin  table  being  shampooed  by  two  of  them. 

Consul  Rocher,  the  French  representative  at  Mengtse,  in 
Yunnan  (a  town  adjoining  the  Tongking  border),  and  who 
was  formerly  for  many  years  in  the  Chinese  Customs 
service,  gives  a  graphic  account  of  this  terrible  massacre 


WESTERN    CHINA  13 

in  La  Province  Chinoise  du  Yunnan.  M.  Rocher  was  sent 
to  deliver  in  Yunnan  the  arms  of  precision  and  the 
European  cannon  which  alone  enabled  the  mandarins 
to  prevail  in  the  end.  He  thus  describes  the  outbreak  of 
the  conflict  in  1856  : — 

"  This  new  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  so  anxiously  looked  for 
by  the  anti-Mahommedan  coalition,  was  at  length  carried  out  on 
the  19th  of  May,  1856 — at  least,  this  was  the  beginning.  Bands 
of  marauders,  levied  and  subsidised  by  the  mandarins,  entered 
upon  the  campaign,  supported  by  a  number  of  the  populace 
attracted  by  the  prospect  of  plunder.  Notwithstanding  that 
the  Mahommedans  had  been  forewarned,  few  of  them  took  any 
precautions  :  they  had  allowed  themselves  to  be  lulled  into  a 
false  sense  of  security,  in  the  belief  that  their  friends  and  neigh- 
bours of  the  day  before  could  not  possibly  become,  all  of  a  sudden 
and  with  no  apparent  motive,  their  murderers  the  day  after. 
Meanwhile  the  people,  worked  up  by  the  authorities  and  egged 
on  by  promises  of  booty,  became  lost  to  all  sense  of  duty,  and 
threw  themselves  upon  innocent  families  with  that  savage 
fanaticism  of  which  one  sees  but  too  many  instances  in  wars  of 
religion  in  all  countries.  In  regions  where  their  numbers  were 
few,  the  Mahommedans  were  cut  down  without  mercy  ;  in  other 
places,  where  resistance  was  attempted,  they  succumbed  to 
numbers,  and  the  remnant,  utterly  without  resources,  set  fire  to 
their  homes  and  fled.  Old  men  and  children,  incapacitated  from 
flight,  found  no  mercy  at  the  hands  of  their  executioners,  and  the 
young  women  whose  lives  were  spared  were  only  reserved  to  be 
the  victims  of  worse  brutalities." 

and  its  termination  in  1873  : — 

"  The  Fu-tai  (Governor  of  the  Province)  made  use  of  the  pretext 
of  celebrating  the  deliverance  of  the  city  (Ta-li)  to  invite  all  the 
Mussulman  chiefs  to  a  grand  banquet ;  those  who  had  openly 
fought  against  the  capitulation  suspected  a  trap,  while  the  prime 
movers  in  the  surrender,  who  had  been  loaded  with  honours  by 
the  Imperial  authorities,  looked  upon  the  invitation  as  nothing 
more  than  an  obligatory  ceremony.  Yang  Yi3-ko,  the  Imperial 
Commander-in-Chief,  alleged  illness  as  an  excuse  for  not  being 
present,  and  sent  one  of  his  lieutenants  in  his  place.  The  invited 
guests  duly  made  their  appearance,  and  were  cordially  received 
by  the  Governor  ;  but  when  the  time  came  for  adjourning  to  the 
dining-hall,  they  were  seized  by  soldiers  posted  in  readiness  at 
the  doors,  and  in  less  than  a  minute  seventeen  heads  rolled  on 
the  floor.  Thereupon  the  Governor  ordered  a  salute  of  six  guns, 
the  preconcerted  signal  for  the  commencement  of  the  massacre 
in  the  town.  It  was  the  eleventh  day  of  the  occupation.  What 
followed  is  indescribable.  The  soldiers  pitilessly  set  themselves 
to  massacre  their  hosts,  whose  hospitality  they  were  enjoying  ; 


14  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

and  the  population,  who  had  flattered  themselves  that  all  fighting 
was  over,  found  themselves  taken  by  surprise,  and  never  attempted 
any  resistance.  After  three  days  of  this  inhuman  butchery,  the 
city  of  Ta-li  and  its  environs  presented  a  heartrending  spectacle  : 
out  of  50,000  inhabitants,  over  30,000  had  perished  in  these  ill- 
fated  days,  the  survivors  being  totally  dispersed.  To  show  that 
there  was  nothing  more  to  be  feared  from  the  rebellion,  at  the 
termination  of  the  massacre  the  Governor  despatched  to  the 
capital  twenty-four  large  hampers,  making  twelve  mule-loads, 
of  human  ears,  sewn  together  in  pairs.  This  trophy  of  the  cap- 
ture of  Ta-li-fu  was  there  exposed  to  the  public  gaze,  along  with 
the  seventeen  heads  of  the  murdered  chiefs." 

This  final  scene  reminds  us  of  the  analogous  piece  of 
treachery  perpetrated  by  Li  Hung-chang,  afterwards 
so  well  known  as  the  Viceroy  of  Chihli,  when,  in  1863, 
the  Taiping  Wangs,  having  surrendered  their  strong 
fortress  of  Soochow  upon  the  personal  promise  of  Gordon, 
that  their  lives  should  be  spared,  were  invited  by  Li  to 
a  feast  where  they  were  all  ruthlessly  massacred,  Li 
posing  in  popular  estimation  as  the  hero  of  the  rebellion 
from  that  time  forth.  It  is  difficult  to  imagine  the 
ordinarily  quiet,  effeminate-looking  Chinaman  capable  of 
the  savage  atrocities  in  which  he  seems  to  revel  when 
once  his  blood  is  roused. 

Mr.  Davenport,  in  his  Consular  report,  also  tells  us  of 
Yunnan : — 

"  I  have  already  described  the  fearful  depopulation  of  tliis 
province,  and  which  invariably  accompanies  a  civil  war  in  this 
country.  The  Imperialist  soldiers  seem  to  be  seized  with  a  kind 
of  frenzy  after  an  action,  when  nothing  less  than  the  destruction 
of  all  destructible  property,  and  the  slaughter  of  old  men,  women, 
and  children,  will  suffice  to  satisfy  their  "  intense  hatred  and 
animosity,'  to  use  the  exculpatory  language  of  their  commanders. 
During  a  short  rebellion,  such  as  visited  the  neighbouring  province 
of  Szechuan,  the  great  bulk  of  the  people  are  enabled,  especially  in 
a  mountainous  district,  to  seek  shelter  from  the  soldiery,  and  a 
few  years  after  the  termination  of  the  struggle  the  gap  in  the 
population  is  filled  up.  In  Yunnan,  however,  the  war  lasted  for 
eighteen  years,  many  towns  were  taken  and  retaken  upwards  of 
ten  times,  while  during  this  long  period  the  people  who  had  taken 
refuge  in  the  mountains,  being  unable  to  cultivate  the  irrigated 
bottom  lands,  died  of  starvation  or  its  accompanying  diseases.  .   . 

"  At  the  census  of  181 2,  the  population  was  estimated  at 
5,561,320,  and  the  following  forty  years  of  peace  probably  brought 


WESTERN    CHINA  15 

the  numbers  up  to  8,000,000.  The  decrease  from  8,000,000  to 
1,000,000  will  astonish  none,  who  have  had  the  opportunity  of 
seeing  the  country  on  the  sea-board,  before  and  after  it  was 
devastated  by  the  T'ai-p'ing  Rebellion.  As  to  recovery,  the  very 
few  officials  in  the  province,  who  seemed  to  take  an  interest  in  the 
matter,  were  of  opinion  that  the  only  possible  means  was  to  insti- 
tute a  compulsory  immigration  of  the  surplus  population  of 
Szechuan,  under  the  management  of  the  Chinese  Government. 
The  Chinese  are  very  willing  emigrants,  even  in  opposition  to  the 
laws  of  their  Empire,  to  any  country  under  foreign  rule  wh^e 
labour  is  well  paid  for,  and  their  lives  and  property,  as  a  general 
rule,  fairly  protected  ;  but  inside  the  Great  Wall  they  are  very 
unwilling  to  change  their  habitat.  In  Yunnan,  in  particular, 
beside  the  usual  dread  of  the  authorities  and  the  supposed  ferocity 
of  the  natives  of  a  strange  province,  they  complain  that,  owing 
to  want  of  roads  and  feasible  transportation,  rice  and  everything 
else  they  could  produce  would  be  of  no  appreciable  value." 

Messrs.  Davenport,  Hosie,  and  Rocher  all  describe  the 
vast  extent  of  terraced  hills  and  of  irrigation  works,  now 
abandoned,  that  cover  the  whole  face  of  the  province,  as 
well  as  the  seemingly  ubiquitous  mines  of  gold,  silver, 
lead,  iron,  tin,  zinc,  and  copper,  besides  jade,  amber, 
sapphires,  lapis-lazuli,  turquoises,  and  agates.  Mr.  Daven- 
port winds  up  by  saying,  "  In  short,  a  volume  would  be 
required  to  point  out  all  the  mineral  wealth  of  this  richly 
endowed  province." 

The  province  of  Szechuan,  literally  "  Four  streams,"  or, 
as  the  ideographic  characters  may  be  freely  rendered, 
"  gridironed  by  streams,"  is  well  named.  Szechuan 
is  a  grand  natural  basin,  watered  through  a  thousand 
channels  by  the  perennial  streams  that  flow  from  the 
lofty  Tibetan  mountains  on  its  western  frontier.  Artificially 
increased  and  regulated  in  the  plain  of  Ch^ng-tu,  which 
thus  rejoices  in  the  most  perfect  system  of  irrigation  in 
China,  one  group  of  these  streams  goes  to  form  the  Min- 
kiang,  or  left  fork  of  the  great  Yangtse  river,  which  after 
uniting  with  the  Kin-sha  Kiang  (Gold-dust  river)  from 
farther  west  washes  the  walls  of  Chungking  in  a  mighty 
stream  800  yards  wide,  with  a  deep  and  rapid  current. 
Other  streams  from  the  north  unite  in  the  navigable 
Kia-ling  Kiang,  which  joins  the  Yangtse  at  Chungking, 
the  two  streams  being  there  divided  by  the  rocky  peninsula 


i6  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

on  which  this  celebrated  city  stands.  Rain  falls  almost 
daily  in  this  favoured  province,  and  the  land  being  high 
the  floods  which  curse  the  Yangtse's  lower  course  are 
there  unknowTi,  though  navigation  is  not  seldom  arrested 
for  a  time  by  the  conversion  of  the  Szechuan  streams  into 
raging  torrents  by  the  summer  rains.  The  climate  is 
damp  and  warm,  eminently  beneficial  to  vegetation,  but 
less  healthy  for  man  than  the  drier  regions  to  the  north 
and  south.  A  belt  of  cloud  and  fog,  through  which  the 
sun's  rays  pierce  intermittently,  but  with  great  force, 
envelops  the  province  during  a  great  portion  of  the  year. 

Yunnan,  which  enjoys  a  bright  and  more  bracing 
climate,  although  in  a  lower  latitude,  means  literally 
"  south  of  the  clouds,"  thus  indicating  the  misty  character 
of  the  northern  province.  Yunnan,  though  lying  between 
the  22nd  and  28th  parallels,  is,  owing  to  the  average 
elevation  of  its  valleys  being  some  5,000  feet  above  the 
sea,  less  oppressive,  and  at  the  same  time  less  favourable 
to  vegetation  than  the  hothouse  atmosphere  of  Szechuan, 
situated  between  the  28th  and  33rd  parallels  of  latitude, 
but  on  an  average  level  of  about  1000  feet  only  above 
the  sea.  And  the  vegetation  of  Szechuan  sets  off  the 
picturesque  rocky  outline  of  its  scenery  to  perfection. 
Outside  the  plain  of  Chengtu,  every  stream  and  streamlet 
has  worn  its  way  through  the  soft  red  sandstone,  and  thus 
the  rolling  plateau  of  Eastern  Szechuan  is  cut  up  by 
innumerable  glens,  each  one  of  which,  with  its  clothing  of 
ferns  and  wild  flowers  on  the  ruddy  background  of  rock, 
presents  a  succession  of  pictures  for  a  landscape  painter. 
Where  the  transverse  ranges  of  limestone,  which  break 
through  the  sandstone  in  parallel  ridges  of  about  2,000  feet 
altitude,  trending  generally  N.E.  and  S.W.,  are  cut  through 
by  the  larger  navigable  rivers,  we  find  true  gorges  with 
vertical  cliffs  and  deep  abyss-like  bottoms.  All  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  sub-tropical  regions  there  flourish  to  perfection 
with  the  exception  of  cotton,  which  is  always  at  its  best 
in  plains  by  the  sea.  In  addition  to  the  staples  of  rice 
and  wheat  (this  latter  now  largely  supplanted  by  the 


WESTERN    CHINA  17 

poppy)  the  land  is  gay  with  crops  of  beans,  barley,  maize, 
buckwheat,  pulse,  sorghum,  ground-nuts,  rape,  sugar- 
cane, hemp,  potatoes  (sweet  and  ordinary),  the  tobacco 
plant,  and  the  mulberry.  A  scientific  rotation  of  crops, 
and  the  conscientious  returning  to  the  soil  of  the  residue 
of  all  that  is  taken  from  it,  explains  theexceptional  fertility. 
No  sooner  is  one  crop  maturing  than  preparations  are 
made  for  another,  the  new  crop  being  often  planted  in  the 
rows  between  the  ripe  crop  yet  unreaped.  Groves  of 
trees,  evergreen  and  deciduous,  surround  the  farmsteads 
which  are  here  scattered  all  over  the  country  at  100  or 
200  yards'  distance  from  each  other,  and  are  not  so  much 
grouped  in  villages  for  mutual  protection  as  in  the  less 
favoured  regions  in  the  outer  world  beyond  the  mountains. 

Unhke  the  Japanese,  in  this  utilitarian  land  a  thrifty 
people  grow  trees  for  profit  rather  than  ornament,  and 
except  the  banyans  (Hoang-ko)  round  the  numerous 
shrines  and  sheltering  the  interminable  succession  of  tea 
and  rest-houses  which  line  the  chief  highways,  the  groves 
have  all  an  industrial  value.  The  bamboo,  which  is  to 
the  sub-tropical  regions  what  the  palm  family  is  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  tropics, — food,  shelter,  and  raiment — 
frames  every  village  prospect  with  its  graceful  feathery 
verdure.  On  the  higher  slopes  stand  glorious  woods 
of  walnut  and  chestnut,  while  the  bottoms  are  lined  with 
the  bright  green  mulberry  and  the  delicately  tinted  tallow 
tree.  The  wood-oil  tree  and  the  varnish-tree  yield 
valuable  products  in  universal  demand  for  home  consump- 
tion, and  furnish  a  surplus  for  export  as  well. 

Sericulture  is  universal  in  Szechuan,  and  all  but  the  very 
poor  dress  in  silk.  Every  household  breeds  its  silkworms, 
which  are  fed  not  alone  on  the  mulberry  leaf  but  also  on  the 
leaves  of  the  oak  and  of  the  Cudrania  triloba  :  the  women 
even  go  so  far  as  to  hatch  the  eggs  in  their  bosoms. 

The  district  of  Ya-chow  supplies  Tibet  with  the  greater 
part  of  its  brick  tea,  the  quantity  sent  by  the  road  of 
Ta-chien-lu  being  valued  at  about  £200,000  annually. 

Another  most  interesting  produce  of  these  parts,  and 


i8  GLEANINGS    FROM   CHINA 

which  has  been  carefully  examined  into  and  minutely 
described  by  Mr.  Hosie  in  his  reports  to  the  Foreign  Office, 
is  the  insect  wax — the  Pai-la  or  white  wax  of  commerce. 
The  insect  producing  this  wax  is  bred  in  a  valley  situated 
5,000  feet  above  sea-level  among  the  mountains  in  the 
south-west  corner  of  Szechuan,  which  drive  the  Yangtse 
to  make  its  great  southern  bend,  in  latitude  28°.  The 
larvae  of  this  insect  {Coccus  Pai-la  of  Wedgewood)  are  here 
found  on  the  large-leaved  privet  {Ligustrum  lucidum)  living 
in  pea-shaped  excrescences  or  scales  :  these  are  easily 
detachable,  and  in  the  end  of  April  they  are  gathered 
from  the  trees  and  collected  in  the  town  of  Teh-chang, 
situated  in  latitude  27°  24',  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Anning 
river. 

Mr.  Hosie,  in  his  Three  Years  in  Western  China,  which 
will  always  be  a  valuable  compendium  for  reference  on 
the  subject,  goes  on  to  tell  us  : — 

'•  To  this  town  (Teh-ch'ang)  porters  from  Kia-ting  annually 
resort  in  great  numbers — in  former  years  they  are  said  to  have 
numbered  as  many  as  10,000 — to  carry  the  scales  across  the 
mountains  to  Kia-ting.  The  scales  are  made  up  into  paper 
packets,  each  weighing  about  sixteen  ounces,  and  a  load  usually 
consists  of  about  sixty  packets.  Great  care  has  to  be  taken  in 
the  transit  of  the  scales.  The  porters  between  the  Chien-ch'ang 
valley  and  Kia-ting  travel  only  during  the  night,  for  at  the  season 
of  transit  the  temperature  is  already  high  during  the  day,  and 
would  tend  to  the  rapid  development  of  the  insects  and  their 
escape  from  the  scales.  At  their  resting-places,  the  porters  open 
and  spread  out  the  packets  in  cool  places.  Notwithstanding  all 
these  precautions,  however,  each  packet,  on  arrival  at  Kia-ting, 
is  found  to  be  more  than  an  ounce  lighter  than  when  it  started 
from  Chien-ch'ang.  In  years  of  plenty,  a  pound  of  scales  laid 
down  in  Kia-ting  costs  about  half-a-crown  ;  but  in  years  of  scar- 
city, such  as  last  year,  when  only  a  thouand  loads  are  said  to 
have  reached  Kia-ting  from  Chien-ch'ang,  the  price  is  doubled. 

"  In  favourable  years,  a  pound  of  Chien-ch'ang  scales  is  calcu- 
lated to  produce  from  four  to  five  pounds  of  wax  ;  in  bad  years, 
little  more  than  a  pound  may  be  expected,  so  that,  taken  as  a 
whole,  white-wax  culture  has  in  it  a  considerable  element  of  risk. 

"  West  from  the  right  bank  of  the  Min  river,  on  which  the  city 
of  Kia-ting  lies,  stretches  a  plain  to  the  foot  of  the  sacred  O-mi 
range  of  mountains.  This  plain,  which  runs  south  to  the  left  bank 
of  the  Ta-tu  river,  which  forms  the  northern  boundary  of  the 
Chien-ch'ang  valley  further  west,  is  an  immense  rice-field,  being 


WESTERN    CHINx\  19 

well  watered  by  streams  from  the  western  mountains.  Almost 
every  plot  of  ground  on  this  plain,  as  well  as  the  bases  of  the 
mountains,  are  thickly  edged  with  stumps,  varying  from  three  or 
four  feet  to  a  dozen  feet  in  height,  with  numerous  sprouts  rising 
from  their  gnarled  heads.  These  stumps  resemble,  at  a  distance, 
our  own  pollard  willows.  The  leaves  spring  in  pairs  from  the 
branches.  They  are  light  green,  ovate,  pointed,  serrated,  and 
deciduous.  In  June,  1884,  when  I  visited  this  part  of  the  country, 
some  of  the  trees  were  bearing  bunches  apparently  of  fruit  in 
small  pods  ;  but  as  no  flowering  specimens  were  then  procurable, 
there  still  exists  a  little  uncertainty  as  to  this  tree.  I  am  informed, 
however,  that  it  is,  in  all  probability,  the  Fraxinus  Sinensis, 
a  species  of  ash.  The  tree  is  known  to  the  Chinese  as  the  Pai-la  shu 
or  "  white- wax  tree." 

"  The  wax  first  appears  as  a  white  coating  on  the  under  sides 
of  the  boughs  and  twigs,  and  resembles  very  much  sulphate  of 
quinine,  or  a  covering  of  snow.  It  gradually  spreads  over  the 
whole  branch,  and  attains,  after  three  months,  a  thickness  of 
about  a  quarter  of  an  inch." 

Mr.  Hosie  does  not  fully  explain  why  the  tree  which 
produces  the  insect,  and  the  tree  upon  which  the  insect 
deposits  its  wax,  should  not  be  cultivated  in  closer  prox- 
imity. No  other  people  but  the  Chinese  would  incur  the 
labour  and  risk  of  transporting  insects  a  distance  of  200 
miles  on  men's  backs,  and  by  night,  for  such  an  object. 
The  melting-point  of  this  insect  wax  being  160°  Fahrenheit 
while  the  animal  tallow  melts  at  95°,  explains  the  great 
value  placed  upon  this  production  in  a  land  where  (the 
treaty  ports  always  excepted)  gas  and  electric  lighting  are 
still  for  the  most  part  unknown.  The  Chinese  "  dips," 
with  their  clumsy  rush  wicks,  give  little  light,  but  they 
have  one  virtue,  that  they  will  burn  in  the  open  air  without 
guttering,  and  it  requires  a  gale  to  extinguish  them.  This 
virtue  is  due  to  their  outer  coating  of  insect  wax,  and 
accounts  for  its  former  value  of  £500  per  ton.  Of  late 
years,  however,  the  competition  of  cheap  petroleum 
from  America  has  largely  reduced  the  consumption  of 
candles  in  China ;  and  where  these  were  formerly 
burnt  in  every  house,  their  use  is  now  mainly  confined 
to  the  handy  varnished-paper  lanterns,  which  the 
condition  of  Chinese  streets  renders  absolutely  indis- 
pensable to  all,  rich  or  poor,  who  venture  out  after  dusk. 


20  GLEANINGS    FROM   CHINA 

The  price  of  insect  wax  has  now  fallen  to  £200  per 
ton,  and  the  import  into  Shanghai  from  Szechuan 
last  year  was  only  500  tons,  valued  at  £100,000. 

Fences  are  rare  in  China,  and  so  valuable  is  the  land  in 
Szechuan  that  each  farmer  plants  his  ground  close  up  to 
his  neighbour's  boundary,  with  no  intervening  division. 
The  roads  were  all  narrow  enough  when  originally  laid 
out,  but  we  have  seen,  in  places  away  from  the  main 
arteries  of  commerce,  raised  footpaths  between  the  paddy 
fields  cut  down  by  the  greed  of  the  cultivators  of  the  land 
adjoining  to  a  width  of  five  or  six  inches  :  and  a  consider- 
able traffic  was  going  on  along  these  paths,  even  not 
excluding  an  occasional  sedan  chair.  To  protect  their 
crops  from  the  ravages  of  the  passing  pack  animals,  the 
farmers  along  the  borders  of  the  roads  scatter  feathers  in 
amongst  the  growing  plants.  The  Chinese  agriculturist 
neglects  nothing  :  of  the  poppy,  which  now  apparently 
replaces  all  other  winter  crops,  to  quote  from  Through  the 
Yangtse  Gorges  : — 

"  If  it  were  forbidden  to  collect  the  drug,  his  winter  crop  of 
poppy  would  still  pay  the  farmer  by  its  other  products,  such  as 
the  oil  produced  from  the  seed  ;  the  lye,  used  in  dyeing,  produced 
from  the  ash  of  the  stalk,  and  the  heavy  crop  of  leaves  which  goes 
to  feed  the  pigs,  which  every  Chinaman  keeps.  Nor,  with  the 
Chinese  system  of  applying  all  the  town  manure  to  the  fields,  does 
the  crop  exhaust  the  ground  or  render  the  summer  crop  of  maize 
any  less  prolific." 

We  see  that  the  Chinaman  has  long  ago  forestalled  us  in 
his  attention  to  by-products,  which  in  this  country  have 
only  begun  to  be  properly  cared  for  quite  recently.  Britain 
would  support  double  its  present  population  upon  our 
actual  resources,  if  every  inhabitant  were  as  thrifty  as  are 
the  Chinese,  both  rich  and  poor,  and  its  agriculturists 
as  well  informed  in  their  own  special  department  and  as 
minutely  painstaking. 

A  very  fine  tobacco  grows  largely  in  Szechuan,  where 
alone  it  is  smoked  in  cigar  form.  The  Ramie  fibre  is 
widely  cultivated  for  the  manufacture  of  grass-cloth, 
that  indispensable  material  of  the  well-to-do  Chinaman's 


WESTERN    CHINA  2i 

elegant  and  appropriate  summer  clothing,  and  the  Fatsia 
papyrijera  is  planted  for  its  pith,  out  of  which  deft  Chinese 
fingers  cut  the  thin  sheets  miscalled  rice  paper.  Dye 
plants  are  less  widely  sown  than  formerly  :  the  brilliant 
yet,  at  the  same  time,  soothing  colours  of  nature — 
safflower,  indigo,  madder — are  giving  place  to  the  glaring 
products  of  chemical  ingenuity.  Aniline  dyes  are  fast 
ruining  Oriental  art,  and  it  is  a  question  whether  all  the 
good  we  have  given  to  Asia  by  our  intercourse  is  not 
counterbalanced  by  the  destruction  of  the  old  artistic 
feeling,  which  permeated  all  its  productions,  the  common- 
est household  utensil  as  well  as  the  finest  fabric,  and  the 
most  precious  "  curio  "  of  China  and  Japan. 

Pisciculture  has  from  time  immemorial  occupied  the 
Chinese,  and  most  successful  they  are  in  entrapping  the 
spawn  in  the  rivers  in  spring-time  and  transporting  it  to 
inland  fish-ponds.  In  Hupeh  in  the  month  of  May  row 
upon  row  of  fine  meshed  fishing  nets  stretched  on  small 
square  bamboo  frames  are  seen  floating  in  the  muddy 
stream  of  the  Yangtse  in  which  the  ova  collect  :  these  are 
afterwards  taken  out  and  placed  in  large  earthenware 
jars,  and  as  soon  as  the  shoals  of  minute  young  fish  appear, 
they  are  transported  to  inland  towns  and  villages  for 
deposition  in  the  local  fish-ponds.  On  their  long  journey 
by  land  and  water,  often  extending  over  several  weeks,  the 
fishlets  are  fed  from  time  to  time  with  yolk  of  egg.  We 
have  seen  many  of  the  final  homes  of  these  fish  far  away 
in  the  hill  country,  hundreds  of  miles  from  the  river  of 
their  birth.  In  the  enclosed  courtyard,  which  forms 
the  entrance  of  every  decent  house  in  China,  a  square 
stone-walled  basin  is  let  into  the  ground,  atrium  fashion, 
and  in  this  the  fish  disport  themselves  ready  to  the 
hand  of  the  cook,  whose  cheerful  workshop  frequently 
forms  one  side  of  the  entrance  yard.  A  small  conduit 
of  clear  running  water  from  the  neighbouring  mountain 
stream  is  conveyed  into  the  basin  under  the  enclosing 
wall  at  one  corner  and  makes  its  exit  by  another.  A 
small  village  is  often  composed  of  a  double  row  of  such 


22  GLEANINGS    FROM   CHINA 

houses,  each  with  its  private  reservoir  served  from  the 
common  stream.  In  Szechuan  even  the  shallow  stagnant 
water  of  the  paddy-fields  is  utilised  for  pisciculture,  and 
the  land  not  only  produces  the  Chinese  staff  of  life,  rice, 
but  the  staple  next  in  importance  in  their  diet,  fish.  In 
the  early  spring,  reeds  and  rank  grass  are  cut  from  the 
hill-sides,  made  up  into  bundles,  then  strung  on  bamboos 
and  laid  down  in  the  shallow  water  in  the  Yangtse  weighted 
with  stones.  Here  the  fish  spawn  and  the  ova  adhere  to 
the  grass  and  reeds,  which  are  then  taken  up  and  sown. 
The  grass  is  afterwards  scattered  in  the  terraced  fields, 
running  water  being  carried  down  from  field  to  field  by 
small  cuts  in  the  dividing  earth  banks,  each  of  which 
can  be  readily  plugged  with  mud,  and  the  circulation 
arrested  or  re-opened  as  occasion  requires. 

Salt,  produced  from  brine  evaporated  over  natural 
fire  wells,  silk,  opium,  and  drugs,  form  the  staple  exports 
to  the  East.  To  quote  again  from  Through  the  Yangtse 
Gorges,  there  is  an  "  inexhaustible  supply  of  drugs, 
huge  junk-loads  of  which  are  despatched  from 
Chungking  throughout  the  season,  to  enrich  the  drug 
stores  and  destroy  the  stomachs  of  their  customers,  the 
dyspeptic  well-to-do  classes.  The  whole  air  of  the 
principal  street  of  Chungking  is  redolent  with  the 
heavy  fragrance  of  Chinese  medicines,  a  melange  appar- 
ently of  rhubarb,  liquorice-root,  orris-root,  lovage  {Radix 
levistici),  and  musk."  The  Chinese,  wisely  or  unwisely, 
imbibe  their  medicines  in  the  form  of  tisanes,  and  a  pre- 
scription made  up  at  one  of  the  chemists'  shops  requires  a 
special  porter  to  transport  it.  The  movement  of  drugs 
in  bulk,  many  valuable,  some  purely  fanciful,  is  a  conspic- 
uous feature  in  the  goods  traffic  from  the  West,  and  a 
large  proportion  of  the  freights  on  the  river  steamers 
trading  to  Ichang  is  derived  from  the  cumbrous  bales  in 
which  they  are  packed  for  transport. 

Of  the  opium  cultivation,  in  speaking  of  the  endless 
stretch  of  country  now  devoted  to  this  enervating  drug, 
it  is  perhaps  best  to  quote  again  from  the  description  of  a 


WESTERN    CHINA  23 

journey  in  the  month  of  April,  "  The  whole  Pong  valley 
was  beautifully  cultivated,  exclusively  with  poppy ; 
the  brilliant  dark  green  of  the  plant,  sprinkled  with  the 
white  flowers,  giving  the  hills  the  appearance  in  the 
distance  of  being  covered  with  rich  pasture,  from  which 
the  sun  had  not  yet  dissipated  the  morning  dews." 

The  value  of  the  opium  produced  in  Western  China  is 
(no  statistics  being  available)  generally  believed  to  be  fully 
equal  to  that  of  the  foreign  import  from  Persia  and  India, 
say  8,000,000/.  ;  the  quantity  of  native-grown,  which 
fetches  only  two-thirds  of  the  price  of  imported,  being 
thus  half  as  much  again  as  its  foreign  rival.  Even  this 
sum  of  16,000,000/. ,  spent  on  a  drug  which,  in  the  opinion  of 
many  Chinese  patriots,  as  well  as  in  the  opinion  of  the  bulk 
of  our  European  missionaries,  is  steadily  and  stealthily 
undermining  the  manhood  of  the  nation,  is  but  a  flea-bite 
compared  with  the  expenditure  upon  intoxicating  liquors 
in  this  country  of  120,000,000/.  On  the  other  hand, 
China,  with  its  four  hundred  millions  of  inhabitants, 
possesses  probably  less  accumulated  wealth  than  do 
Britain's  forty  millions. 

The  Chinaman's  wants  are  fewer,  and  he  leads  a  more 
contented  life.  Yet,  in  their  way,  the  Chinese  are  great 
traders,  and  the  interchange  of  products  carried  on  by 
Szechuan  with  the  neighbouring  provinces  is  estimated 
at  something  like  27,000,000/.  Of  this  amount  only  a  very 
trifling  percentage  passes  through  the  Imperial  Maritime 
Custom  House  situated  at  Ichang,  the  toll-gate  of  the 
Upper  Yangtse.  The  value  given  in  the  "  returns  "  for 
the  year  1888  is  1,230,000/.  This  covers  all  the  goods 
landed  at  and  shipped  from  Ichang  in  steamers.  An 
equal  value  probably  passes  Ichang  in  junks.  Deducting 
this,  as  well  as  the  value  of  the  salt  and  opium  (the 
greater  part  of  which  is  carried  by  by-paths  overland 
to  avoid  the  tax  stations),  from  the  above  total,  we  find 
a  trade  of  some  15,000,000/.  being  carried  on  by  other 
routes.  The  principal  of  these  are  the  combined  land  and 
water  route  from  Southern  Szechuan,  by  way  of  the  Yuan 


24  GLEANINGS   FROM    CHINA 

river  and  the  Tung-ting  lake,  and  the  northern  land  route 
to  the  Han  river,  which  debouches  at  Hankow.  There 
is  farther  an  overland  trade  between  Yunnan  and  Burmah, 
via  Ta-li  and  Bhamo,  estimated  at  about  500,000/.  in 
annual  value.  The  French  in  1889  succeeded  in  running 
a  stern-wheeler,  or  monorue,  as  they  have  dubbed  this  class 
of  vessel,  through  their  new  Tongking  territory  by  the 
Red  river  to  Laokai,  on  the  Southern  Yunnan  border. 
This  is  the  shortest  by  far  of  any  of  the  outlets  of  Western 
China  to  the  seaboard,  but  the  navigation,  owing  to  the 
smallness  of  the  stream  and  the  greater  fall  in  its  bed, 
is  far  more  difficult  and  dangerous  than  that  of  the  Upper 
Yangtse.  It  is  estimated  that,  notwithstanding  the 
difficulties  of  transit,  one-fifth  of  the  woollen  goods 
imported  from  Great  Britain  into  North  China,  via 
Shanghai,  goes  on  to  Szechuan,  as  well  as  one-tenth  of 
the  cottons,  the  figures  being  so  long  ago  as  1888  : — 

Total  import  of  woollens  into  Shanghai  . .  1,500,000 

Of  which  for  Szechuan       . .          . .          . .  . .  300,000 

Import  into  Shanghai  of  cottons              . .  . .  12,000,000 

Of  which  for  Szechuan       ..          ..          ..  ..  1,200,000 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  bulk  of  the  cotton  clothing 
of  the  people  of  Western  China  is  made  from  imported 
raw  cotton  spun  and  woven  by  the  women  of  the  family. 
Cotton  being  little  grown  in  the  west,  it  has  to  be  imported 
from  the  outside,  and,  as  a  consequence,  all  the  roads 
converging  on  Yunnan  and  Szechuan  are  covered  with 
cotton  in  the  season.  We  have  seen  the  rocks  on  the 
rapids  of  the  Yangtse  strewn  with  cotton,  and  on  the 
land  roads,  strings  of  porters  struggling  along  under  the 
huge  unpressed  bales,  like  ants  under  their  eggs  in  the 
breeding  season.  Mr.  Holt  Hallett  tells  us  that  a  quantity 
goes  over  from  Zimme,  in  Siam,  at  a  cost  of  carriage  of 
one  shilling  per  ton  per  mile,  while  raw  cotton  is  the  main 
staple  of  the  imports  from  Burmah.  In  the  woollen 
trade,  the  heavy  Russian  cloths  take  a  great  part  :  these 
are  also  imported  overland,  and,  owing  to  their  good 


WESTERN    CHINA  25 

quality,  and  total  freedom  from  shoddy  or  other  admix- 
ture of  fibres,  are  in  large  general  demand,  notwithstanding 
their  very  high  cost. 

Mr.  Exner,  in  his  China  ;  Shizzen  von  Land  und  Leuten, 
Leipzig,  gives  an  interesting  account  of  the  working  of 
the  salt  monopoly — a  curious  mean  between  the  farming 
of  the  revenue  so  prevalent  in  old  times  in  Europe  and  our 
modem  European  methods  of  indirect  taxation  : — 

"  The  salt  trade  of  China  is  of  special  interest  for  us,  seeing  that 
it  is  in  the  first  place  a  monopoly  of  the  Chinese  Government, 
and  at  the  same  time,  in  its  working,  a  rare  and  interesting  instance 
of  the  carrying  into  effect  of  some  of  the  Socialist  ideas  now  preva- 
lent in  Europe.  One  of  the  leading  theories  of  certain  political 
Socialists,  viz.  that  traders'  profits  should  be  regulated  by  the 
Government,  is  here  exhibited  in  practice.  China  is,  for  the 
purposes  of  salt  distribution,  divided  into,  I  believe,  seven  districts, 
each  of  which  has  its  special  centre  of  production.  Salt  may  only 
be  sold  in  the  district  in  which  it  is  produced.  Any  salt  sold  in 
another  district  is  regarded  as  smuggled  and  liable  to  be  seized. 
The  salt  must  be  sold  at  a  price  fixed  by  the  State,  which  for 
this  purpose  has  in  each  district  great  centres  of  distribution, 
where  it  is  then  sold  by  the  State  at  a  correspondingly  high  price 
to  so-called  salt  merchants.  No  one  can  be  a  salt  merchant 
without  having  a  warrant  from  the  Imperial  Salt  Commissioner, 
and  this  warrant  not  only  enables  the  possessor  to  buy  salt  for  an 
indefinite  time,  but  it  can  be  sold  again,  or,  what  is  more  usual, 
bequeathed  as  an  heirloom.  These  warrants  have  a  high  value, 
and  although  differing  in  the  different  districts  can  on  an  average 
be  sold  for  from  3000  to  4000  pounds  sterling.  This  licence 
enables  the  salt  merchant  to  buy  about  250  tons  of  salt  and  to 
sell  this  amount  at  any  market  he  pleases  in  the  district.  But 
he  cannot  sell  it  to  any  one  he  chooses.  As  he  got  possession  of 
the  salt  through  Government,  so  must  he  also  dispose  of  it  through 
the  Government.  To  this  end  he  must  deliver  it  to  the  District 
Salt  Inspector  in  a  Salt  Customs  Building.  There  are  several 
of  these  buildings  in  every  place  of  any  importance.  The  Salt 
Inspector  then  sells  at  a  proportionately  higher  price  fixed 
by  Government  and  in  the  order  of  its  arrival.  After  it  is 
all  sold  the  merchant  gets  back  his  warrant,  and  the  money  for 
his  salt,  custom  dues  and  other  official  expenses  having  been 
deducted  therefrom.  His  profit  in  each  transaction  is  therefore 
absolutely  fixed,  consisting  only  of  the  difference  of  the  price  fixed 
by  Government  for  buying  and  selling,  minus  customs  and  other 
expenses.  It  varies  from  year  to  year,  depending  upon  the 
merchant's  sagacity  in  choosing  the  best  market,  and  thus  getting 
back  his  warrant  more  quickly,  so  as  to  be  able  to  go  back  and  buy 
another  250  tons." 


26  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

The  salt  merchant's  profit  thus  depends  upon  the  speed 
with  which  he  can  turn  over  his  warrant  and  recoup 
himself  his  outlay.  It  is  not  often  that  a  warrant  is 
turned  over  more  than  once  in  a  year.  One  sees  tier  upon 
tier  of  junks  lying  for  months  waiting  to  load  at  the  salt 
depots,  and  again  waiting  their  turn  to  discharge  when, 
after  many  weeks'  toilsome  tracking,  they  have  at  last 
reached  their  destinations. 

Mr.  Baber,  in  his  inimitable  account  of  his  journeys 
in  Western  Szechuan  [Travels  and  Researches  in  Western 
China.  Geog.  Society),  speaking  of  the  country  between 
Chungking  the  commercial  and  Cheng-tu  the  political 
capital,  states  that  the  agriculture  of  this  district, 

"  favoured  by  the  comparative  level,  and  by  the  exceptional 
possibility  of  irrigation  from  the  river  and  its  tributaries,  is 
successful  above  the  average,  particularly  in  sugar.  .  .  The  whole 
country  is  dotted  over  with  cottages  at  a  short  distance  from  one 
another,  picturesque  and  frequently  spacious  edifices  composed 
of  a  strong  timber  frame  filled  up  in  the  interstices  with  walls  of 
stone  below  and  mud  above.  .  .  ." 

Baron  von  Richthofen,  in  drawing  attention  to  this 
broadcast  distribution  of  habitations,  remarks  that, 
"  people  can  live  in  this  state  of  isolation  and  separation 
only  when  they  expect  peace,  and  profound  peace  is 
indeed  the  impression  which  Szechuan  prominently  con- 
veys." Richthofen  further  says  of  this  part  of  the 
country  : — "  There  are  few  regions  in  China  that,  if  equal 
areas  are  compared,  can  rival  with  the  plain  of  Cheng-tu 
as  regards  wealth  and  prosperity,  density  of  population 
and  productive  power,  fertility  of  climate,  and  perfection 
of  natural  irrigation  ;  and  there  is  probably  no  other 
where  at  the  present  time  refinement  and  civilisation  are 
so  generally  diffused  among  the  population." 

Baber  goes  on  to  tell  us,  "Another  characteristic 
of  the  purely  farm  life  as  distinguished  from  village  life 
of  the  agricultural  population  is  the  markets  (ch'ang). 
.  .  .  These  gatherings  are  the  centres  of  news,  gossip, 
official   announcements,   festivals,    theatrical  shows   and 


WESTERN    CHINA  27 

public  and  family  meetings."  Farther  west,  he  tells  us, 
"  Gold  is  found  in  nuggets  occasionally  of  large  size  in  the 
border  country."  At  the  turn  where  the  highway  to  Ta- 
chien-lu  leaves  the  Tung,  gold  borings  driven  into  the 
rock  may  be  seen  on  the  further  bank.  .  .  .  The  gold  was 
offered  me  for  sale  in  the  shape  of  pills  of  clay,  full  of 
minute  scales  of  the  precious  metal.  Quite  lately  gold 
has  been  discovered  close  to  Ta-chien-lu  (on  the  Tibetan 
frontier)  and  the  rush  of  diggers  has  caused  a  good  deal  of 
embarrassment  to  the  authorities." 

The  present  inhabitants  of  Szechuan  are  nearly  all  des- 
cended from  immigrant  families,  chiefly  from  Hupeh 
and  Kiangsi,  dating  from  the  sixteenth  century.  The 
original  population  was  almost  entirely  exterminated  by 
the  wars  with  which  the  province  was  ravaged  upon  the 
accession  of  the  reigning  Manchu  dynasty  ;  hence,  as 
might  be  expected,  no  distinction  is  observable  between 
the  Szechuanese  and  the  inhabitants  of  the  more  easterly 
provinces.  Of  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  absolutely 
nothing  is  known.  Striking  evidence  of  their  existence  is 
displayed  in  the  cave  buildings  cut  out  of  the  sandstone 
cliffs  that  line  the  rivers,  roomy  dwellings,  highly  orna- 
mented. The  people  who  executed  these  works  are 
known  to  the  Chinese  as  Man-tse,  which  means  "  barbar- 
ians," a  term  sufficient  to  destroy  all  interest  in  them 
in  the  eyes  of  a  native  archaeologist.  Mr.  Baber  says  of 
them  : — 

"  A  persistent  and  plodding  exploration  of  these  interesting 
monuments  will  have  to  precede  the  formation  of  any  trustworthy 
opinion  respecting  their  design  and  their  designers.  The  caves 
are  of  many  kinds,  and  may  have  served  many  uses.  They  may 
have  been  tombs,  houses,  granaries,  places  of  refuge,  easily  defended 
store-houses,  shrines,  memorials,  and  even  sentry  boxes,  accord- 
ing to  their  disposition  and  situation.  The  local  Chinaman,  a 
person  of  few  thoughts,  and  fewer  doubts,  protests  that  they  are 
the  caves  of  the  Mantze  and  considers  all  further  inquiry  ridiculous 
and  fatiguing.  His  archasological  speculations  have  not  been 
greatly  overstepped  by  my  own  theory,  which  I  offer  with  diffidence 
— that  these  excavations  are  of  unknown  date,  and  have  been 
undertaken,  for  unexplained  purposes,  by  a  people  of  doubtful 
identity." 


28  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

This  vast  and  magnificent  country  of  Western  China 
has  been  at  last  opened  up  :  its  commercial  metropolis, 
Chungking,  has  been  made  a  Treaty  Port.  This  great 
advance  was  quietly  effected  by  the  negotiation  with  the 
Chinese  Government,  through  our  Minister  at  the  Court 
of  Peking,  Sir  John  Walsham,  of  an  additional  article 
to  Sir  Thomas  Wade's  treaty  of  1876.  A  clause  to  this 
effect,  supplementary  to  the  original  Chef 00  Convention, 
the  article  of  which  we  have  quoted  above,  was  signed  at 
Peking  on  March  31st,  1890.  In  the  words  of  the  Times 
correspondent,  wired  from  Peking  on  the  3rd  of  April  of 
that  year  :  "  Direct  intercourse  is  thus  established  with 
a  large,  wealthy,  and  prosperous  province,  and  British 
steam  enterprise  inland  is  guaranteed  as  soon  as  Chinese 
steamers  ply.  This  success  is  now  achieved  where  the 
Chefoo  agreement  failed.  This  considerate  negotiation 
promotes  friendliness,  and  a  large,  healthy,  and  natural 
trade  will  develop,  and,  with  the  help  of  improved 
appliances,  expand,  the  good  will  of  both  people  and 
Government  being  assured,  instead  of  their  opposition." 

The  comments  made  upon  this  news,  which  was  pub- 
lished in  the  Times  of  April  5th,  as  well  by  the  provincial 
as  by  the  metropolitan  press,  hardly  appreciated  the  full 
value  of  this  advance.  They  seemed  to  say,  "  What  is 
the  use  of  an  open  port  if  you  are  not  allowed  to  go  there  ?  " 
It  is  true  that  British  steamers  had  yet  to  wait  for  Chinese 
to  lead  the  way,  and  that  thus  steam  communication  with 
the  new  port  appeared  to  be  indefinitely  postponed,  and 
that  so  far  the  astute  Chinaman  might  be  assumed  to 
have  scored  a  point  against  us.  But  the  fact  remained, 
that  the  long  disputed  haven  of  Chungking  was  actually 
"  open,"  and  it  is  needful  to  know  what  this  phrase  means  in 
order  to  be  able  to  appreciate  the  full  value  of  the  conces- 
sion made  to  us.  An  "  open  "  or  "  treaty  "  port  is  one 
at  which  foreign  goods  are  admitted  upon  payment  of 
one  ad  valorem  duty  of  5  per  cent.,  and  at  which  native 
Chinese  produce  is  exported  on  the  same  terms.  In  the 
case  of  an  inland  port  like  Chungking,  which  is  situated 


WESTERN   CHINA  29 

1,500  miles  distant  from  the  seaboard,  all  its  foreign 
imports  must  necessarily  pass  through  Shanghai  for 
trans-shipment  from  the  ocean  to  river  steamers.  Such 
goods,  by  paying  duty  at  the  Customs  in  Shanghai,  will 
be  free  from  all  further  tax,  and  can  then  be  conveyed  by 
steamer  and  junk  to  their  destination  unmolested  by  the 
numerous  inland  custom-houses  (li-kin)  and  the  local 
octroi  (lo-ti-chuan).  Farther,  after  his  goods  have  been 
thus  safely  landed  in  the  new  treaty  port,  the  foreign 
merchant  there  can  forward  them  on  his  own  or  on  native 
account  to  more  remote  inland  marts  in  communication 
with  Chungking  on  payment  of  an  additional  transit 
tax  of  2^  per  cent,  only,  again  clearing  all  the  local  custom- 
houses en  route.  In  this  way,  centres  like  Yunnan-fu 
and  Tali-fu  in  Yunnan,  Kuei-yang,  the  metropolis  of 
Kwei-chow,  Cheng-tu,  the  State  capital,  and  Ta-chien-lu, 
the  great  trading  mart  on  the  Tibetan  frontier, 
will  be  effectively  reached  by  the  foreign  trader  with 
his  cotton  and  woollen  piece  goods,  in  exchange  for 
which  he  will  be  empowered  to  take  back  the  native 
productions  of  the  country  upon  the  same  easy  terms. 
Besides  being  thus  placed  in  connection  with  the  different 
entrepots  of  the  Great  South-West,  the  foreign  merchant 
established  in  Chungking  is  further,  by  the  Kia-ling  river, 
which  debouches  at  that  port,  placed  in  direct  relation 
with  the  less  known  provinces  of  Shen-si  and  Kan-su  in 
the  north-west. 

It  is  pardonable  that  press-men  and  others  in  this 
country  should  have  difficulty  in  appreciating  the  full 
advantage  of  adding  a  twentieth  to  the  nineteen  treaty 
ports  already  open  in  China.  No  one  who  has  not  visited 
them  on  the  spot,  and  travelled  in  the  interior  as  well, 
can  know  what  the  full  meaning  of  the  magic  words 
"  open  port  "  really  is.  The  open  ports  are  oases  of  light 
and  activity,  in  a  waste  of  darkness  and  stagnation.  The 
dark  ages  of  Europe  seem  to  be  reproduced  in  many  of 
the  remoter  regions  of  China.  All  our  modern  ideas  of 
progress  and  the  possibility  of  improving  their  lot,  seem 


30  GLEANINGS   FROM   CHINA 

non-existent  in  the  official  as  well  as  in  the  popular  mind. 
A  literary  mandarin,  who  has  worn  out  his  eyesight  in 
studying  for  the  many  examinations  he  has  passed 
through,  will  ask  you  calmly  if  the  same  sun  shines  in  your 
country,  and  whether  it  is  true  that  your  men-at-arms 
are  only  invincible  as  long  as  they  maintain  their  upright 
position.  Even  the  wise  Li  Hung-chang,  generally  and 
rightly  considered  to  be  the  most  enlightened  statesman 
that  China  possesses,  once  alleged  in  our  hearing  that  it 
was  useless  for  us  to  attempt  to  navigate  the  Upper 
Yangtse,  for  the  reason  that  the  great  Yii,  when  opening 
out  the  channel  of  the  gorges,  neglected  to  remove  the 
rocks.  This  great  Chinese  artificer,  who  was  kept  so  hard 
at  his  engineering  labours,  draining  the  marshes  and  em- 
banking the  rivers,  that  for  years  he  never  returned  home, 
and  during  that  time  on  two  or  three  occasions  passed  by 
the  door  of  his  house  without  going  in,  retired  from  his 
labours  2278  B.C.  His  Excellency  implied  that  the  great 
Yii  had  evidently  intended  no  steamers  should  run  there. 
Doubtless,  there  is  a  leaven  at  work  in  our  presence  in 
China,  which  will  in  time  leaven  the  mass,  and  the  more 
points  of  contact,  in  the  shape  of  treaty  ports  are  created, 
the  quicker  will  be  the  advance,  but  to  the  outward 
eye  only  a  small  radius  round  each  port  has  been  so 
far  affected.  It  is  true  that  the  electric  wire  now  unites 
in  its  bonds  all  the  chief  cities  of  the  eighteen  provinces, 
but  its  use,  except  always  at  the  treaty  ports,  is  almost 
always  entirely  confined  to  the  carriage  of  official  de- 
spatches. As  usual  in  all  officially  conducted  enterprises 
in  China  (and  the  Chinese  Government  acknowledges  no 
union  of  capitalists  for  large  enterprises  apart  from  official 
management),  little  encouragement  is  given  to  the  general 
public.  In  the  case  of  the  telegraph,  the  charges  are  high, 
averaging  about  one  shilling  a  word,  more  or  less,  according 
to  distance.  This  tariff  is,  with  a  thrifty  people  like  the 
Chinese,  quite  prohibitive  as  far  as  social  messages  are 
concerned  ;  and  for  business  purposes  its  use  is  confined 
to  the  few  wealthy  merchants  in  the  larger  towns,  and  by 


WESTERN    CHINA  31 

them  used  very  sparingly.  In  the  less  important  places 
it  is  not  open  to  the  public  at  all,  although  the  needful 
stations  and  operators  are  to  be  found  there. 

At  one  such  station,  in  the  town  of  Shin-tan  in  Hupeh, 
we  once  tried  to  send  a  message.  After  much  inquiry  we 
at  last  found  our  way  to  the  Tien-pao-chii,  or  "  lightning 
despatch  office,"  and  were  shown  to  an  old  out-of-the-way 
two-storied  Chinese  dwelling-house.  Chmbing  up  an  in- 
conveniently steep  ladder  we  reached  the  upper  storey, 
which  consisted  of  a  roomy  loft,  with  a  rickety  loose  plank 
floor  and  no  ceiling  beneath  the  uncemented  tile  roof. 
The  apartment  had  every  appearance  of  not  having  been 
swept  or  garnished  since  the  day  it  was  constructed.  As 
our  eyes  gradually  grew  accustomed  to  the  dim  light 
admitted  through  the  small  paper  windows,  we  perceived 
in  one  comer  a  curtained  trestle  bedstead  illuminated 
by  a  diminutive  opium-smoker's  lamp,  in  another  corner 
a  telegraphic  signaHing  instrument  with  a  silk  cover  to 
protect  it  from  the  dirt,  and  a  couple  of  the  usual  stiff- 
backed  wooden  Chinese  chairs.  A  few  clothes-trunks 
and  a  tumble-down  wardrobe  completed  the  furniture. 
As  we  entered,  a  man  of  thirty,  handsomely  dressed  in 
silk,  arose  from  the  bed  and  welcomed  us  to  a  seat.  He 
received  us  with  great  effusion  and,  to  our  surprise,  seemed 
really  pleased  to  see  his  haunt  invaded  by  a  barbarian. 
A  lad  of  eighteen  or  less,  also  gaily  dressed  in  silks,  pro- 
duced the  hospitable  tea,  and  conversation  commenced. 
The  manager  could  not  accept  my  message  without  a  card 
from  the  Taotai,  or  Governor,  who  resided  forty  miles 
distant  and  with  which  he  advised  me  to  provide  myself 
on  a  future  occasion.  The  lad,  who  turned  out  to  be  an 
operator  trained  in  Shanghai,  had  merely  to  report  on  the 
condition  of  the  wires,  which  he  did  daily  by  telegraphing 
to  the  next  station  the  English  words  "  all  right."  The 
rest  of  the  English  he  once  knew  he  appeared  to  have 
forgotten. 

As    to    the     elder    man,    the    manager,    a    sociable 
Soochow  man,  he  talked  of  himself  as  an  exile  among 


32  GLEANINGS   FROM   CHINA 

savages  with  no  society,  no  occupation,  and  no  amuse- 
ments :  he  thoroughly  enjoyed  a  visit  from  one  who 
came  from  the  civiHsation  of  Shanghai,  and  seemed  deeply 
to  regret  our  departure.  He  particularly  lamented  his 
hard  lot,  in  that  having  bought  two  thousand  English 
words  of  a  native  teacher  of  English  in  Shanghai,  at  a  cost 
of  two  dollars  per  hundred  (so  he  expressed  himself), 
he  had  now  only  use  for  two  words,  and  had  almost 
entirely  forgotten  the  remaining  nineteen  hundred  and 
ninety-eight.  This  amount  of  English,  so  expensively 
acquired,  should  have  been  the  means  of  his  securing  a 
better  appointment  than  forty  pounds  a  year  in  a  remote 
inland  town. 

We  have  given  prominence  to  this  incident  as  it  is 
characteristic  of  the  enormous  gulf  that  separates  China 
at  the  treaty  ports  from  China  uncontaminated  by  our 
presence,  in  all  that  makes  up  the  movement,  intellectual 
and  material,  of  our  modern  progressive  civilisation.  The 
electric  telegraph  was  forced  upon  the  Chinese  by  the 
acutely  felt  need  of  the  Government  in  the  north  to 
communicate  with  their  troops  who  were  fighting  the 
French  in  the  south,  two  thousand  miles  away  in  Tong- 
king.  A  Danish  company,  the  Great  Northern  Telegraph 
Company  of  Copenhagen,  were  the  fortunate  contractors, 
and  the  network  of  wires,  embracing  all  the  eighteen 
provinces,  was  erected  by  them  with  marvellous  despatch, 
and  handed  over  to  native  operators,  some  trained  by 
themselves,  some  trained  in  America — to  work. 

Thus  China  moves,  and  so  far  wars  have  been  her  chief 
instigators  in  the  path  of  that  material  progress  which  it  is 
now  generally  conceded  must  accompany,  if  not  precede, 
moral  progress  ;  and  that  there  is  room  for  and  sharp  need 
of  progress  in  China,  the  perusal  of  every  work  of  travel 
in  that  country  cannot  fail  to  convince  the  most  conserv- 
ative. Even  those  who  take  Ruskin  literally,  and 
sympathise  with  the  old  Chinese  statesman's  ideal  of 
every  man  on  his  plot  of  ground,  growing  the  food  for  his 
family  and  the  raw  material  for  their  clothing,  which  is 


WESTERN    CHINA  33 

spun  and  woven  by  the  women  of  the  house,  must  admit 
the  failure  of  the  present  system.  The  inequalities  of 
fortune,  and  the  inequitable  distribution  of  the  necessities 
and  comforts  of  life,  are  all  too  glaring  in  our  European 
cities  and  in  our  country  villages ;  but  the  poorest  work- 
man or  workwoman  here  looks  well  fed  in  comparison 
with  the  crowds  of  shrivelled,  half-starved  wretches  by 
which  one  is  surrounded  nearly  everywhere  in  inland 
China.  The  ravages  of  the  most  horrible  diseases,  which 
medical  science  has  practically  stamped  out  of  Europe, 
are  patent  on  all  sides,  and  on  fete-days  and  festivals 
we  have  seen  the  country  roads  thronged  with,  literally, 
thousands  of  the  most  cruelly  repulsive  specimens  of 
rotting  humanity.  In  the  environs  of  the  larger  treaty 
ports  we  find  the  labourers'  wages  tripled,  and  the  value 
of  the  farmers'  produce  quadrupled.  The  people  are  better 
fed,  and  large  numbers  of  the  sick  are  treated  in  our 
hospitals,  so  that  scenes  like  the  above  are  seldom  seen 
there. 

Under  existing  conditions  large  regions  in  China,  and 
notably  the  rich  and  fertile  province  of  Szechuan,  which 
has  formed  the  main  theme  of  our  present  review,  are 
vastly  over-populated,  and  large  numbers  exist  there  in 
a  condition  of  permanent  semi-starvation  in  consequence. 
But  resources  capable  of  maintaining  in  comparative 
comfort  a  far  larger  population  exist  here  as  elsewhere 
in  China.  The  mineral  wealth,  notably  coal,  only  requires 
the  application  of  Western  methods,  to  become  a  large 
source  of  revenue  to  the  State,  and  of  employment  to  the 
surplus  inhabitants.  Above  all,  however,  means  of  com- 
munication are  the  first  necessity.  With  no  roads  but 
narrow  mountain  footpaths,  every  impediment  stands  in 
the  way  of  migration  from  the  congested  districts  of 
Szechuan  to  the  sparsely  peopled  valleys  of  Yunnan  and 
Kweichow  ;  and  even  when  once  there  the  immigrant 
farmer,  owing  to  the  difficulties  of  intercommunication, 
finds  no  outlet  for  his  surplus  produce,  which,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  so  sadly  wanted  for  the  masses  in  the  great  cities. 


34  GLEANINGS   FROM    CHINA 

A  "  treaty  port  "  established  in  this  region  means  a  new 
centre  of  activity,  higher  wages,  and  vastly  increased 
employment  for  the  labouring  classes  :  to  the  surrounding 
country  it  means  an  increased  outlet  for  their  productions, 
and  a  steady  rise  in  values.  To  the  "  officials  and  gentry  " 
it  means  a  concrete  example  of  the  gains  to  be  derived 
from  Western  methods  of  progress  as  opposed  to  the  stag- 
nation involved  in  fixing  their  ideals  in  the  past.  To 
the  missionary  it  means  a  fair  field  and  no  favour,  and  to 
the  medical  missionary  an  additional  sphere  of  work 
amongst  the  indigent  sick.  To  the  people  generally  our 
settlements  yield  a  specimen  of  order  and  cleanliness  in  a 
wilderness  of  dirt  and  discomfort,  which  they  do  nothing 
to  alleviate  until  stimulated  by  our  contact. 

As  Mr.  F.  H.  Balfour,  an  old  resident  in  China,  in  an 
article  in  the  Asiatic  Quarterly  Review,  speaking  of  the 
Model  Missionary,  most  truly  tells  us,  "  He  lives  in  some 
dirty,  crowded  town,  far  away  in  the  interior,  where  his 
modest  Chinese  house,  running  round  a  well-kept  garden, 
and  presided  over  by  a  notable  English  or  American 
housewife,  is  not  only  an  oasis  of  cleanliness  in  a  desert 
of  dirt  and  stench,  but  a  reproach  and  an  example  to  the 
sordid  dwellings  of  his  neighbours."  Chinese  cities  boast 
no  municipalities  and  practically  no  police  :  each  man 
does  what  is  right  in  his  own  eyes,  and  it  is  open  to  one  and 
all  to  befoul  the  roadways  at  their  own  sweet  will,  while 
the  greed  of  the  shopkeepers  is  for  ever  narrowing  the 
crowded  alley-ways  that,  with  the  one  exception  of  the 
capital  (and  this  has  its  own  peculiar  amenities),  do  duty 
for  streets.  Our  "settlements"  with  their  broad  tree- 
lined  avenues,  magnificent  quays,  and  garden-encircled 
houses,  are  greatly  admired  by  the  natives.  At  Hankow, 
600  miles  up  the  Yangtse,  the  common  term  in  use  among 
the  Chinese  for  the  British  settlement,  which  is  built  on 
the  site  of  an  old  swamp  filled  up  and  raised  by  the  enter- 
prise of  the  residents  until  its  level  is  now  higher  than  that 
of  the  Chinese  town  adjoining,  is  "  Hwa-lo,"  or  "  Flowery 
Pavilions." 


WESTERN    CHINA  35 

Such  oases  are  not  without  their  influence  and  example, 
and  in  the  native  cities  at  the  treaty  ports  a  marked,  though 
very  slow,  advance  in  the  direction  of  order  and  cleanli- 
ness is  distinctly  noticeable.  Streets  have  been  repaved, 
and  the  black  slush  underlying  the  broad  stone  slabs, 
which  has  a  pecuharity  of  squirting  up  under  the  trousers 
of  the  unwary  European  as  he  treads  on  what  the  Chinese 
elegantly  term,  "  swimming  stones,"  has  in  many  cases 
been  dug  out  and  removed.  In  Hanyang,  the  prefectural 
city  adjoining  Hankow,  from  which  it  is  separated  by  the 
deep  but  narrow  "  Han  "  river,  a  tree-lined  "  bund," 
solidly  built  up  with  blocks  of  red  sandstone,  has  been 
laid  out. 

At  some  of  the  more  recently  opened  ports,  such  as 
Wuhu  and  Ichang,  which  were  thrown  open  to  British 
trade  by  the  Chefoo  Convention  of  1876,  the  privilege  of 
a  separate  area  for  "  foreigners  "  to  reside  in  appears 
not  to  have  been  insisted  upon.  In  the  case  of  Ichang, 
the  unwise  abandonment,  under  Sir  Thomas  Wade,  of  the 
concession  originally  marked  out  for  a  foreign  settlement, 
has  undoubtedly  been  the  cause  of  much  sickness,  and 
some  deaths,  among  the  few  Europeans  who  have  as  yet 
resorted  to  that  port,  and,  owing  to  the  difficulty  of  obtain- 
ing a  decent  site  to  reside  in,  has  deterred  more  than  one 
would-be  settler  from  adventuring  there.  We  might 
have  hoped  that  in  the  newly-opened  port  of  Chungking, 
in  Szechuan,  wiser  counsels  would  prevail,  and  that  the 
right  of  British  residents  there  would  not  be  construed 
merely  into  the  right  of  renting  (at  an  exorbitant  rent)  a 
Chinese  house  with  its  pestilential  surroundings.  At  the 
time  the  older  "  treaty  ports  "  were  opened,  it  was  looked 
upon  as  a  sine  qua  non  that  British  subjects  should  be  en- 
couraged to  resort  to  them  by  having  every  possible  facility 
for  settlement  offered  them.  Such  facilities  include  the 
power  to  live  under  the  conditions  that  health,  under  a 
sub-tropical  sun  and  damp,  rainy  climate,  demands  : 
these  are  not  obtainable  in  ports  where  the  foreign 
residents  are  scattered  about  amidst  Chinese  surroundings. 


36  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Foreign  settlements  are  regarded  with  no  friendly  eye 
by  the  Chinese  official ;  and,  apparently,  it  is  in  the  vain 
endeavour  to  please  this  class  that  our  Ministers  in  China 
have  ceased  to  insist  upon  what  was,  till  quite  lately, 
regarded  as  the  necessary  concomitant  of  a  "  treaty 
port,"  The  climate  per  se  undoubtedly  is  healthy,  as 
Pliny  describes  it — "  coeli  jucunda  salubrisque  temperies 
leniumque  ventorum  commodissimus  flatus  "  ;  but,  as  far 
as  unseasoned  Europeans  are  concerned,  it  is  not  giving  the 
climate  a  fair  chance  when  it  is  only  to  be  enjoyed  in 
the  midst  of  Chinese  humanity  ;  while  "  gentle,  favourable 
winds,"  when  tempered  with  the  breath  of  Chinese  cities, 
decidedly  lose  their  virtue. 

Few  now  living  are  likely  to  see  railways  permeating 
and  developing  this  grand  region  of  the  earth's  surface. 
These  three  Western  provinces  are  so  cut  off  by  precipitous 
ravines,  steep  mountain  ridges,  and  deep,  wide  rivers, 
that  the  outlay  necessary  to  make  roads  for  the  iron  horse 
is  quite  beyond  the  means  of  the  Chinese  people  or  their 
Government  as  at  present  constituted.  Ordinary  roads 
barely  exist  in  China,  and,  without  the  aid  of  Western 
capital  and  science,  railroads  will  never  penetrate  those 
distant  regions.  One  railway — a  short  line  of  eighty 
miles,  connecting  the  coal-mines  of  Kaiping,  on  the 
Manchurian  border,  with  the  shipping  port  of  Tientsin — 
was  finally  completed  and  opened  to  traffic  in  1888. 
This  line  runs  through  a  marshy,  thinly-populated 
country,  but  which  has  the  advantage  of  being  immediate- 
ly under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  powerful  Viceroy  of  ChihH, 
Li  Hung-chang.  Yet  even  his  influence  failed  in  prolong- 
ing the  line  eighty  miles  farther  to  its  natural  terminus, 
Peking.  ^  This  line  was  built  with  native  capital,  but 
with  imported  EngUsh  rails,  and  the  roUing-stock  was 

*  The  line  was  taken  into  the  heart  of  Peking  by  the  Allied 
Powers  after  the  Boxer  Rising  of  1900,  and  since  then  the  Chinese, 
unaided,  are  carrying  it  through  the  Nan-kou  Pass  on  to  Kalgan, 
from  which  point  we  may  hope  ere  many  years  are  passed  to  see 
it  connected  with  the  trans-Siberian,  thus  bringing  Peking  two 
days  nearer  Europe. — a.  e.  n.  l. 


\*Sf^ 


Chang  Chih  tung,  one  of  the  most  energetic  and  most  learned  of  Chinese 

Viceroys,  whose  Appeal  against  opium-smoking  and   foot-binding  roused 

all  the  literati  to  the  need  for  reform. 

Vo  /,ac'  /).  37. 


WESTERN    CHINA  37 

also  imported,  mainly  from  England.  But,  now  it  has 
been  decreed  that  future  lines  are  to  be  built  by  Chinese, 
of  Chinese  materials,  and  with  Chinese  capital  exclusively, 
the  progress  of  future  railways  will  be  slow  indeed. 
The  Hukwang  Viceroy,  Chang  Chih-tung,  within  whose 
jurisdiction  lay  the  line  from  Hankow  to  Peking,  was 
for  years  engaged  with  two  German  mining  experts, 
searching  for  suitable  coal  and  iron  ore  with  which  to 
commence  operations,  and  in  a  country  like  South- Western 
China,  even  were  foreign  capital  to  be  invited  to  construct 
the  roads,  they  could  hardly  prove  remunerative,  as  long 
as  free  exploration  of  the  mineral  resources  of  the  region 
is  prohibited.  The  Chinese  have  neither  the  capital,  the 
knowledge,  nor  the  energy,  to  develop  their  mines 
seriously  ;  and  the  Government  will  not  allow  the  small 
native  companies,  that  here  and  there  attempt  mining 
in  a  most  primitive,  old-world  manner,  to  avail  themselves 
of  foreign  assistance. 

With  the  restless  European  pressing  in  upon  them  on 
all  sides:  with  Russia  occupying  the  best  part  of  Manchuria 
on  the  north,  with  France  holding  Tongking  in  the  south, 
with  the  British -Indian  frontier  touching  them  in  the 
west,  the  Chinese  can  hardly  remain  long  as  they  are. 
Either  they  will  be  absorbed  gradually  by  their  more 
enterprising  neighbours — a  process  which  we  believe  to  be 
a  matter  of  indifference  to  the  great  mass  of  the  people, 
who  care  little  who  governs  them  as  long  as  they  have 
equitable  rulers  able  to  keep  order  ;  or,  like  Turkey,  they 
may  rub  on  as  they  are  on  sufferance,  owing  to  the  mutual 
jealousy  of  their  enemies.  The  latter  seems  the  more 
likely  prospect ;  and,  eventually,  the  time  must  come 
when  Western  modes  of  thought  will  have  taken  hold,  and 
the  present  archaic  system  of  education  be  reformed  in 
accordance  with  modern  requirements.  We  shall  then 
see  of  what  a  race  like  the  Chinese,  endowed  with  excep- 
tional industry,  perseverance,  and  patience,  and  with  no 
lack  of  brain  power,  is  capable.  But,  unless  another 
convulsion  like  the  Taiping  rebellion  should  occur  (and 


38  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

this  is  by  no  means  an  impossibility),  throwing  over 
tradition  bodily,  as  did  the  "  First  Emperor,"  220  B.C., 
it  will  be  a  long  time  yet  before  China  takes  that  place 
in  the  world  to  which  her  numbers,  resources,  and  high 
civilisation,  justly  entitle  her. 


BRITISH    TRADE   WITH    CHINA 

It  is  difficult  for  people  who  have  not  lived  in  China 
and  travelled  in  the  interior,  away  from  the  busy  life  of 
the  Treaty  Ports,  to  reaUse  what  the  Chinese  Empire  is 
to-day — an  enormous  stretch  of  country  larger  than  the 
whole  of  Europe,  peopled  by  a  dense  population,  most 
industrious  and  civihsed,  yet  still  living  under  condi- 
tions which  vividly  recall  the  descriptions  of  our  own. 
Middle  Ages. 

Few  people  realise  upon  what  a  democratic  and  decen- 
trahsed  basis  the  Chinese  Empire  stands.  The  Central 
Government  at  Peking  may  exercise  despotic  sway  over  its 
own  appointed  officials,  but  it  dares  not  touch  the  people 
at  large,  who  have  their  own  ideas  of  self-government 
consecrated  by  centuries  of  "  custom."  This  unwritten 
law  goes  ever  unchallenged,  while  the  codified  law  is  more 
often  than  not  a  dead  letter.  Theoretically  the  local 
magistrate,  the  appointee  of  the  provincial  viceroy,  and 
so  the  officer  of  an  infallible  Emperor,  is  absolute;  in 
practice  his  powers  are  extremely  limited.  The  fact 
of  his  having  no  armed  force  at  his  back  prevents  his 
issuing  any  decree  not  in  accord  with  the  public  opinion 
of  the  citizens  he  is  supposed  to  rule  over;  should  he 
attempt  anything  of  the  kind,  he  is  soon  made  to  with- 
draw by  public  demonstrations  of  discontent,  which  never 
fail  ultimately  to  bring  him  into  line  with  the  popular 
will ;  and  he  will  go  great  lengths  in  evading  disagreeable 
instructions  from  above,  rather  than  expose  himself 
to  humiliation  from  below.  The  "  father  and  mother  " 
of  his  flock  dares  not  incur  an  exhibition  of  his  rebellious 
children  before  an  invidious  world. 

39 


40  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Dating  back  from  the  time  of  the  Taiping  Rebellion 
(1848-1864),  the  Chinese  people  have  been  encouraged  by 
their  officials  to  form  themselves  into  militia  for  self- 
defence.  This  militia,  analogous  to  the  train-bands  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  is  officered  and  armed  by  the  citizens 
themselves,  and,  again  like  our  train-bands,  resents 
official  control.  They  refuse  to  obey  their  officials,  whom 
I  have  known  order  them  to  put  down  riots,  mostly  anti- 
missionary,  and  at  times  assemble  in  open  defiance  of 
instructions,  in  order  to  defeat  some  scheme  which  they 
consider  anti-patriotic.  Thus  at  Chungking,  in  1897, 
when,  at  the  close  of  the  war  with  Japan,  it  was  rumoured 
that  Japanese  merchants  and  officials  were  coming  up  the 
Yangtse  to  take  up  a  concession  of  land  that  the  Governor 
had  marked  out  for  them,  the  local  militia  assembled, 
literally  in  its  thousands,  swearing  that  never  !  never  ! 
should  the  audacious  Japs  be  permitted  to  take  possession. 
Fortunately  for  the  peace  of  this  far  inland  and,  from 
the  European  resident  point  of  view,  defenceless  treaty 
port,  the  Japanese  expedition  was  delayed  in  the  rapids,  so 
that  the  militia,  after  three  days'  shouting  and  demonstra- 
ting— an  extraordinary  mixture  of  the  comic  and  the 
picturesque — at  last  got  tired  and  returned  to  their  occu- 
pations. Having  fired  off  all  their  powder  and  neglected 
their  business  in  the  interval,  when  the  Japs  did  arrive 
no  notice  whatever  was  taken  of  them.  The  only  result 
of  this  exuberant  patriotism  was  to  alarm  the  unfortunate 
Chinese  officials  and  the  merchants  and  gentry  who  had 
anything  to  lose,  as  well  as  to  afford  an  amusing 
spectacle  to  the  onlookers  perched  on  the  high  city  walls 
above  them. 

The  weakness  of  the  Central  Government  in  China  has 
ever  been  the  bane  of  our  diplomatists.  Instead  of  recog- 
nising things  as  they  were,  and  redressing  grievances  on 
the  spot,  our  Government  has  cherished  the  illusion  that 
by  holding  Peking  alone  responsible  for  every  disturbance 
in  the  provinces,  they  could  strengthen  the  Empire  and 
simplify  their  work.     The  result  has  been  to  worry  the 


BRITISH    TRADE    WITH    CHINA  41 

Peking  officials,  as  well  as  our  own  ministers  there,  beyond 
endurance  ;  while  many  a  crime,  such  as  the  absolutely 
unprovoked  murder  of  two  Englishmen  by  the  Wusueh 
mob,  not  a  hundred  miles  from  Hankow,  and  many  other 
outrages  too  long  to  enumerate,  have  gone  unpunished. 
The  old  gunboat  policy  of  seeking  redress  on  the  spot 
has  been  the  only  successful  one  in  China,  and  it  is 
gratifying  to  see  that  this  has  been  the  policy  pursued  in 
Hong  Kong — a  policy  too,  which  in  the  long  run,  earns 
the  approbation  of  the  Chinese  themselves. 

In  travel  in  China  there  is  a  charm  which  repays  the 
traveller  for  the  many  discomforts  incidental  to  finding 
oneself  suddenly  transported  into  the  life  of  the  fifteenth 
century  and  enabled  to  realise  the  state  of  our  ancestors 
generations  ago  ;  a  state  from  which  the  "  revival  of 
learning "  gradually  transformed  the  civilised  world 
so-called,  into  its  present  state  of  activity,  mental  and 
physical,  and  the  resultant  astonishing  development  of 
material  comfort  and  international  intercourse.  But  it  is 
difficult  for  denizens  of  Europe  to  realise  that  a  highly 
civilised  people  like  the  Chinese  should  be  so  behindhand 
in  many  of  what  we  hold  to  be  the  first  necessities  of 
civilisation  such  as  roads  and  railways.  Magnificent 
waterways  supply  the  place  of  roads  throughout  the 
alluvial  plains,  but  in  the  hilly  and  mountainous  regions, 
which  occupy  three-fourths  of  the  whole  empire,  nothing 
worthy  of  the  name  of  road  exists. 

The  difficulty  of  inter-communication  is  thus  the  great 
obstacle  to  any  rapid  increase  in  our  trade.  The  present 
Manchu  dynasty  in  China  has  discouraged  intercourse 
between  the  different  provinces  and  has  allowed  the  old 
roads  to  fall  into  decay.  This  state  of  things  will  be 
slowly  remedied  by  the  introduction  of  railways,  but  it 
will  be  a  long  time  before  many  of  the  numerous  projected 
lines  come  into  existence,  and  in  the  meanwhile  it  will  be 
well  to  induce  our  Government  to  aid  in  removing  the 
other  great  obstacles  which  oppose  the  advance  of  our 
trade  with  China.     The  chief  of  these  is  the  opposition 


42  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

still  placed  by  the  Chinese  officials  in  the  way  of  developing 
the  country,  and  so  enriching  the  people,  and  giving  them 
the  means  wherewith  to  indulge  in  the  foreign  luxuries 
of  Manchester  cottons  and  Sheffield  hardware.  The  mass 
of  the  Chinese  people  are  poor  labourers  living  from  hand 
to  mouth,  fairly  well  fed,  food  being  good  and  cheap 
in  this  fertile  land,  but  with  no  possible  surplus  for  good 
clothing  or  comfortable  lodging.  All  work  such  as  track- 
ing boats  against  the  swift  current  of  the  Chinese  rivers, 
and,  in  the  mountainous  regions,  conveying  merchandise 
on  their  backs  from  town  to  town,  is  done  by  overtaxed 
hand  labour,  and  thus  the  mass  of  the  people  are  little 
better  than  the  beasts  of  burden,  docile  to  a  degree,  but 
with  few  more  wants  than  the  animals,  with  the  addi- 
tional quality  of  being  a  cheaper  machine  for  the  work,  for 
over  rough  mountain  paths  a  coolie  will  carry  more  than 
a  horse  and  cost  less  to  feed. 

Now  liberal  mining  laws  would  lead  to  the  almost 
unhmited  investment  of  foreign  capital  in  China,  and  thus 
to  the  better  employment  of  the  people,  and  the^r  gradual 
enrichment  ;  but  so  far  mining  continues  to  be  generally 
discouraged  ;  a  few  big  concessions  to  privileged  syndi- 
cates appear  to  have  been  granted,  but  anything  like 
general  permission  to  mine,  either  to  Chinese  or  to  Euro- 
peans, is  still  persistently  refused.  Our  Government, 
through  their  Minister  in  Peking,  should  press  upon  the 
Chinese  to  adopt  mining  laws  similar  to  those  in  force  in 
our  great  colonies.  Everything  is  possible  in  China  by  a 
mixture  of  pressure  and  persuasion  ;  but  it  has  required 
the  late  successful  action  of  Germany  and  Russia  in  their 
so-called  spheres  to  bring  the  fact  of  this  possibility  home 
to  our  Government,  who,  until  the  recent  startling  intru- 
sion of  our  rivals  into  Chinese  politics,  have  been  for  the 
past  fifty  years  deaf  to  the  remonstrances  and  recommen- 
dations of  British  residents  in  China. 

When  Russia  advanced  another  thousand  miles  south, 
practically  shutting  us  out  of  Manchuria,  with  a  second 
Sebastopol  in  Port  Arthur,  ready  to  pounce  upon  Peking 


BRITISH    TRADE    WITH    CHINA  43 

at  any  moment,  some  attention  was  at  length  paid  to 
the  critical  condition  of  the  Chinese  Empire,  and  there 
is  some  chance  now  of  the  "  open  door  "  remaining  open 
as  long  as  our  attention  is  not  called  off  elsewhere.  We 
have  an  active  Minister  watching  our  interests  at  Peking  ; 
all  that  is  now  needed  to  ensure  due  protection  to  our 
trade  in  China  is  for  the  people  of  this  country  to  see 
that  their  representatives  in  Parliament  understand  and 
watch  the  China  question,  and  so  keep  the  Government 
of  the  day  up  to  the  mark,  and  compel  them  to  give  hearty 
support  to  our  Minister's  representations.  We  must  give 
the  young  reform  party  in  China  our  moral,  if  not  material 
support  and  help  them  to  rid  themselves  of  the  reactionary 
Manchus.  We  should  keep  wide  awake  when  the  coming 
tariff  revision  comes  under  discussion,  and  in  any  modifica- 
tions of  the  tariff  study  carefully  our  own  interests  as 
well  as  those  of  the  Chinese  people,  which,  in  truth,  run 
on  all  fours  with  our  own.  Should  higher  export  and 
import  duties  be  ultimately  agreed  upon  (ten  per  centum 
ad  valorem  is  spoken  of  in  lieu  of  the  present  five  per 
centum)  we  must  demand  a  quid  pro  quo  in  the  total 
abolition  of  all  inland  transit  dues  and  likin,  by  whom- 
soever collected,  and  let  the  internal  trade  of  China  be 
made  as  free  as  is  that  of  protectionist  America  to-day. 
There  is  great  danger,  that,  in  the  state  of  chaos  into 
which  China  is  falling,  these  inland  dues,  under  "  foreign  " 
control,  and  against  which  our  diplomatists  have  been 
carrying  on  a  continuous  struggle  for  many  decades,  may 
become  crystallised  and  irremovable.  The  Imperial 
Maritime  Customs,  under  Sir  Robert  Hart,  is  no  longer 
confined  to  the  ports  on  the  coast  and  along  the  land 
frontier  :  strings  of  new  inland  custom  houses  have  of 
late  years  been  gradually  established,  with  foreign  staffs 
along  the  Yangtse,  and  now  a  steamer  or  foreign-owned 
junk  is  called  upon  to  pay  "  export  and  coast-trade  " 
duty  on  the  cargo  it  carries  of  seven  and  one-half  per  cent. 
ad  valorem  between  ports  sometimes  less  than  a  hundred 
miles  apart. 


44  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

The  above  are  abuses  that  need  diplomatic  aid  to  get 
removed,  and  it  behoves  China  merchants  not  to  let  the 
import  tariff  be  raised  (which,  under  treaty,  cannot  be 
done  without  our  free  consent)  unless  at  the  same  time 
all  inland  dues  are  abolished.  The  boon  that  this  reform 
would  be  to  the  Chinese,  and  so  to  ourselves,  can  hardly  be 
realised,  except  by  those  who  have  had  experience  of  the 
vexatious  delays,  often  amounting  to  days  at  a  time, 
which  these  inland  Custom-houses  inflict  upon  merchants 
and  shipowners  trading  in  inland  waters.  Like  the 
through  transit  pass  system  we  have  forced  upon  the 
Chinese,  such  wholesale  changes  necessarily  upset  many 
venerable  interests  and  cause  much  local  distress,  but 
such  interests  can  be  compensated  out  of  the  increased 
Customs  dues. 

Good  roads,  liberty  to  mine,  and  free  internal  traffic — 
these  are  the  three  essentials  to  a  really  appreciable  increase 
in  our  present  limited  trade,  to  bring  about  which  we  must 
look  to  diplomatic  pressure.  I  do  not  think  that  any 
great  reform  in  our  business  methods  in  China  is  needed 
unless  it  were  the  training  of  young  English  merchants 
to  be  fluent  Chinese  scholars.  This  is  almost  a  counsel 
of  perfection,  as,  to  learn  Chinese  well  enough  to  dispense 
with  a  native  interpreter  or  writer,  would  mean  a  young 
man  beginning  not  later  than  fifteen  years  of  age,  and 
devoting  himself  exclusively  to  the  language  for  three 
years  at  least.  As  a  matter  of  fact  there  are  no  Europeans 
now  in  China  capable  of  speaking  and  writing  the  language 
like  natives.  All  use  Chinese  writers  to  eke  out  their 
deficiencies.  In  the  present  state  of  transition  and  in 
the  coming  development  of  the  country  by  European 
syndicates,  trustworthy  British  interpreters  would  be 
invaluable,  and  their  employment  would  save  much 
friction. 

As  it  is,  no  pains  are  spared  by  British  and  other  mer- 
chants in  China  to  find  out  what  goods  will  sell  in  China, 
to  get  home  manufacturers  to  make  such  modifications 
as  their  customers  demand,  and  to  facilitate  business  by 


BRITISH   TRADE    WITH    CHINA  45 

acting  as  middlemen  on  the  lowest  possible  terms.  Com- 
petition has  so  reduced  the  laying  down  costs  that  most 
European  articles  can  be  bought  to-day  in  Chinese  stores, 
in  Shanghai  and  Hong  Kong,  at  lower  retail  prices  than 
are  ordinarily  paid  in  London. 

If  any  improvement  in  business  methods  in  the  China 
trade  is  possible,  it  must  be  on  this  side  and  such  as  will 
enable  us  to  hold  our  own  in  the  stern  competition  to 
which  Germany  and  America  are  now  subjecting  us. 

The  most  restless  and  pushing  men  from  all  the  countries 
of  Europe,  with  their  varied  training,  and  their  different 
idiosyncrasies,  have  gone  forth  to  build  up  the  commercial 
supremacy  of  their  adopted  country  in  America  ;  their 
children  inherit  their  capacity,  and  the  blend  of  all  nations 
speedily  develops  a  new  and  harmonious  whole.  They 
learn  to  "  hustle  "  and  to  be  hustled,  and,  as  workmen, 
if  they  show  the  least  sign  of  laziness  or  incompetency, 
they  are  ruthlessly  fired  out.  No  sentimentahsm  pro- 
tects them  on  the  part  of  the  employer  ;  no  poor-law 
necessarily  provides  for  the  lazy  or  incompetent.  Hence 
the  utmost  is  made  of  their  vastly  superior  natural  re- 
sources, and  each  step  gained  towards  perfection  is  but 
an  incentive  to  a  new  advance. 

Another  weighty  hindrance  to  our  trade,  and  one  which 
it  lies  in  our  own  hands  to  remove,  is  our  absurd  repugnance 
to  adopt  the  Metric  System.  Our  present  antiquated 
British  system  of  weights  and  measures  has  nothing  but 
its  antiquity  and  its  consequent  familiarity  to  our  own 
people  to  recommend  it.  Foreigners  never  succeed  in 
mastering  it,  and  we,  ourselves,  memorise  the  figures  as 
children,  often  to  forget  them  afterwards  in  mature  age. 
The  Chinese  and  Japanese  use  only  decimal  divisions, 
and  have  difficulty  in  making  calculations  not  based  on 
the  decimal  system.  In  their  calculations  they  do  not 
use  pen  and  paper  as  we  do,  but  the  swan-pan  (counting 
board,  or  abacus),  the  divisions  of  which  are  purely  decimal. 
The  French  metric  system  is  possibly  not  the  best  that 
could  be  devised,  but  it  is  there,  and  is  being  fast  adopted 


46  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

throughout  the  civilised  world,  and  we  are  only  cutting 
our  own  throats  by  standing  aloof  so  long.  We  must 
come  to  it  sooner  or  later  ;  then,  why  not  sooner  ?  Only 
the  other  day  the  Japanese  Government  placed  a  very 
heavy  order  for  dockyard  machinery  and  ships'  plates 
for  new  battleships  with  the  agent  of  a  French  firm  in 
Yokohama,  rather  than  with  the  agent  of  a  British  firm, 
although  the  latter's  prices  were  far  lower,  simply  because 
they  could  work  to  metric  measurements  with  less  loss 
of  materials  and  time.  The  Chinese  have  no  standard 
weights  and  measures,  they  vary  from  town  to  town,  but, 
being  all  decimal,  the  necessary  adjustments  are  easily 
calculated,  and  the  apparent  confusion  is  reduced  in 
practice  to  the  minimum  of  inconvenience.  This  is 
another  grievance  which  can  practically  be  remedied 
by  a  stroke  of  the  pen,  provided  our  manufacturers  can 
be  brought  to  see  how  they  are  losing  trade  through  their 
blind  conservatism.  They  have  only  to  awake  to  the 
necessity  of  reform  to  induce  its  immediate  enforcement 
by  Act  of  Parliament. 

These  above-mentioned  drawbacks  to  the  free  develop- 
ment of  our  trade  with  China  are  within  our  own  control. 
The  remedies  suggest  themselves,  and  if  we  lack  the 
energy  or  the  means  to  apply  them,  we  have  only  our- 
selves to  blame.  For  the  other  extraneous  causes  of  the 
stationary,  if  not  declining,  condition  of  our  trade  with  the 
Chinese  empire  our  traders  cannot  be  held  responsible. 
These  depend  more  on  political  conditions,  and  need  the 
aid  of  Government  interference  to  ameliorate. 

We  may  find  compensation  for  this  great  decline,  as  far 
as  tea  is  concerned,  in  the  fact  that  China's  loss  is  India's 
gain,  but  the  once  flourishing  silk  trade  appears  to  have 
left  our  shores  for  ever.  Sundry  exports,  the  "  muck 
and  truck,"  as  they  used  to  be  contemptuously  styled 
by  the  merchant  princes  of  the  good  old  times,  no  longer 
come  to  London  as  the  great  distributing  depot.  Con- 
tinental ports,  such  as  Hamburg  and  Havre,  Antwerp 
and  Trieste,  now  all  import  direct,  and  they  have  been 


BRITISH    TRADE    WITH    CHINA  47 

most  unpatriotically  favoured  in  their  not  unnatural 
struggle  for  independence  by  our  own  steamship  lines,  not 
excluding  the  subsidised  P.  &  O.  Company,  which,  for 
many  years  past,  have  been  carrying  the  same  goods  from 
China,  via  England,  at  cheaper  rates  to  Antwerp  and  Ham- 
burg than  to  London  and  Liverpool,  and  have  been  equally 
handicapping  our  manufacturers  in  their  competition 
with  those  of  the  Continent  by  charging  them  proportion- 
ately higher  outward  rates  on  their  shipments  to  China. 
In  the  case  of  iron  from  Belgium,  the  handicap  against 
shippers  from  British  ports  has  been  as  high  as  7s.  6d.  per 
ton,  and  ranges  to-day  from  2s.  6d.  to  5s.  For  many 
years  past  it  has  been  possible  to  lay  down  in  China,  Ameri- 
can cotton  goods  from  Massachusetts  for  2d.  per  piece 
less  freight  than  for  the  identical  goods  manufactured  in 
Lancashire.  Merchants  know  that  such  differences  more 
than  cover  the  margin  of  profit  and  loss  on  the  usual 
range  of  shipments  from  this  country  to  China,  and  that 
such  differences  are  the  sole  cause  of  many  large  orders 
being  diverted  from  the  manufacturers  of  our  own  country 
to  those  of  the  Continent,  and  of  the  United  States.  Still, 
we  must  admit  that  the  greater  energy  of  our  Continental 
rivals,  especially  the  Germans,  must  be  credited  for  the 
great  expansion  in  recent  years  of  miscellaneous  exports 
from  China.  The  same  painstaking  efforts  that  have 
discovered  the  value  of  so  many  heretofore  discarded  by- 
products of  the  industrial  arts,  have  been  applied  to  the 
discovery  in  China  of  many  heretofore  neglected  raw 
materials  serviceable  to  home  industries  on  the  Continent 
of  Europe. 

Here  again  cheap  freights  by  rail  and  steam  have  done 
much  to  develop  intercourse  between  the  ports  of  China 
and  the  inland  manufacturing  towns  of  Germany  ;  the 
heavy  subsidies  which  the  German  taxpayer  pays  to  the 
fleet  of  the  North  German  Lloyd  Company  are  amply 
recouped  in  the  facilities  which  it,  as  well  as  the  State- 
owned  railways  of  Germany,  afford  to  German  trade. 
Our  British  steamers  discourage  the  export  from  China  of 


48  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

articles  of  low  intrinsic  value,  such  as  sheep's  wool,  cheap 
skins,  fowl  and  duck  feathers,  cotton  refuse,  waste  silk, 
fowls'  eggs,  cereals,  pulse,  oils  and  varnishes — the  innumer- 
able products  of  a  vast  farming  region  as  large  as  the 
whole  of  Europe,  with  a  cultivation  more  "  intense  " 
than  in  any  other  region  of  the  earth's  surface,  due  to  the 
rich  soil  of  the  vast  alluvial  plains,  a  perfect  system  of 
manuring  and  a  warm,  moist,  stimulating  climate,  which 
permits  of  an  endless  rotation  of  crops.  It  is  in  stimu- 
lating the  disposal  of  their  agricultural  resources  that  we 
must  look  to  the  enrichment  of  the  Chinese  people,  of 
whom  the  farming  and  labouring  classes  form  fully  nine- 
tenths,  and  these  are  the  people  we  must  cultivate  in 
our  efforts  to  provide  customers  for  our  imports  :  in  a 
word,  in  China  we  must 

"  Take  Care  of  the  Exports,  and  the  Imports  will 
TAKE  Care  of  Themselves." 

It  is  with  the  desire  of  helping  to  prove  this  axiom, 
that  I  myself  established  agencies  in  the  Far  West  of 
China  for  the  collection  of  varied  produce,  which,  at  the 
time  of  my  first  visit  to  that  region,  fifteen  years  before, 
were  looked  upon  by  the  natives  as  almost  worthless,  but  I 
have  not  been  seconded  in  my  efforts  by  British  steamship 
companies.  Remonstrances  are  useless  in  the  face  of 
"  conference  rates,"  which  leave  a  shipping  agent  in  China 
tied  up  with  red  tape,  and  unable  to  meet  the  wants  of 
shippers  by  reasonable  reductions  on  cheap  produce, 
which  cannot  afford  the  high  tariff  rates  agreed  upon. 
That  these  rates  are  excessive  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
to  New  York,  where  there  is  no  conference,  the  rates  of 
freight  rule  thirty  to  fifty  per  cent,  lower  than  to  London 
or  Liverpool.  These  conference  rates  were  originally 
adjusted  to  meet  the  carrying  of  produce  worth,  say,  £50 
per  ton,  and  are  now  equally  enforced  upon  produce 
worth  ;^io  to  £1$  per  ton. 

Interviews  with  steamship  companies  lead  to  no  result ; 
individual  owTiers  would  gladly  meet  you  if  they  could. 


BRITISH   TRADE    WITH    CHINA  49 

but  Mr.  Jorkins  (in  the  shape  of  the  allied  companies)  in 
the  background  is  always  obdurate.  A  similar  conference 
rules  the  river  companies  plying  from  Ichang  to  the  coast, 
who,  on  the  one  article  of  Tibetan  wool,  extort  for  960 
miles  carriage  down-stream,  a  freight  of  £2  5s.  per  ton. 
Hence  we  welcomed  the  introduction  of  Japanese  and 
German  steamers  on  the  Great  River,  as  well  as  on  the 
Ocean  lines,  as  likely  to  put  an  end  to  the  shortsighted  and 
unpatriotic  action  of  our  own  British  companies.  It  is 
not  as  if  the  steamers  were  full ;  as  a  matter  of  fact  most 
of  them  come  home  half  empty  and,  if  many  find  it  hard 
work  to  pay  their  way,  this  difficulty  is  as  much  due  to 
a  neglect  of  their  own  and  their  customers'  interests  as 
to  the  increasing  competition  which  affects  everybody 
alike. 

The  chief  foreign  imports  into  China  from  Europe  are 
cottons,  woollens,  and  hardware.  In  cottons  Britain  still 
holds  her  own,  although  hard  run  by  the  United  States. 
In  light  woollens  and  mixtures  we  are  slowly  yielding 
to  Germany  ;  the  manufacturers  of  Saxony  possess  excel- 
lent raw  material  at  their  doors,  and  their  competition  is 
aided  by  cheaper  freights  as  above  explained.  In  hard- 
ware Pennsylvania  is  cutting  out  our  own  Midlands.  It 
is  true  that  Sheffield  cutlery  is  unsurpassed,  and  hence 
eagerly  bought ;  but  in  such  articles  as  locks,  bolts,  hinges, 
and  house  fittings  generally,  America  leads  the  way  in 
better  designs  and  more  highly  finished  work  at  the  same 
price.  More  brains  in  the  workmen  and  better  tools  to 
work  with  are  the  secrets  of  American  supremacy  in  this 
field — not  so  long  ago  the  undisputed  monopoly  of  Bir- 
mingham. Generally,  I  regard  American  competition 
as  far  more  serious  than  German.  Doubtless  this 
unsuccessful  competition  of  the  Old  World  in  its  struggle 
with  the  New  was  inevitable. 

All  business  is  war.  Meanwhile  with  the  resources  we 
possess,  I  cannot  doubt  that,  as  the  need  is  felt  and  better 
technical  training  and  closer  application  takes  the  place 
of    the   old,    now   lapsed    apprenticeship   system,    both 


50  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

workmen  and  capitalists  will  find  means  successfully  to 
meet  the  keen  competition  that  now  encounters  us  on 
every  side.  As  long  as  our  present  general  prosperity 
lasts  we  may  be  content  to  go  on  in  the  old  grooves,  but 
let  the  pinch  of  adversity  be  felt,  and  we  shall  doubtless 
find  the  way  to  turn  out  as  good  and  as  cheap  work 
as  our  neighbours.  Our  German  rivals  have  been  driven 
to  improve  their  ways  by  the  spur  of  necessity  ;  may  we 
learn  to  improve  ours  in  time  and  before  the  spur  of 
necessity  is  driven  home,  sparing  no  efforts  to  recover 
that  commercial  supremacy,  once  our  boast,  but  now  the 
absolute  condition  of  our  continued  existence  as  a  popu- 
lous and  powerful  nation  ! 


"EX   ORIENTE   LUX!" 

A    REJOINDER 

The  curiously  instructive  article  under  the  above  heading 
in  the  North  American  Review  of  July,  1899,  written  by 
Mr.  Vladimir  Holmstrem,  provided  an  interesting  sketch 
of  the  Russian  view  of  the  Far  Eastern  question  as  it 
affected  the  United  States.  It  should  be  equally  inter- 
esting to  look  at  the  same  question  from  the  opposite 
point  of  view  of  the  Western  merchant  trading  with 
China,  and  to  trace,  if  we  can,  to  what  extent  Russian 
political  interests  in  the  Far  East  are  reconcilable  with  the 
commercial  interests  of  the  civilised  Powers  who  now  hold 
the  largest  stake  in  the  trade  of  China. 

Mr.Vladimir  Holmstrem's  appeal  to  the  American  people 
was  fathered  by  an  introduction  from  the  pen  of  Prince  E. 
Ookhtomsky,  the  eloquent  annalist  of  the  journey  of  the 
present  Emperor  of  Russia,  then  the  Czarewitch,  through 
British  India  and  Eastern  Asia,  seven  years  before.  This 
short  introduction  is  of  special  value  to  the  student  of  Far 
Eastern  politics  of  the  present  moment,  for  it  indicates 
the  basis  upon  which  recent  official  action  by  Russia  in 
China  is  avowedly  founded,  viz.  :  (i)  the  idea  of  auto- 
cracy ;  (2)  the  idea  that  the  culture  of  the  West  leads  to 
anarchy  ;  (3)  the  idea  that  America  must  emancipate 
herself  from  England's  pohtical  tutelage,  and  co-operate 
with  Russia  in  China. 

Now,  seeing  that  America  is  in  herself  the  living  embodi- 
ment of  this  Western  culture  which  Prince  Ookhtomsky 
so  unhesitatingly  condemns,  and  to  which  alone  Russia 
is  indebted  for  her  civilisation  and  influence  in  the  world, 

51 


52  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

it  will  be  seen  that  logic  does  not  play  a  high  part  in  the 
Prince's  argument.  When  we  bear  in  mind  the  extent  of 
his  travels,  and  of  his  acquaintance  with  European,  not- 
ably English,  literature,  one  can  only  account  for  such 
sentiments  by  the  ultra-patriotic  wave  of  Pan-Slavism 
that  dominates  the  conservative  Russians,  men  who  will 
professedly  have  no  part  in  the  accursed  thing  called 
Western  progress,  and  whose  leading  spokesman  has  been 
that  notorious  reactionary,  the  (late)  Imperial  Minister, 
M.  Pobiedonostzeff. 

These  are  Prince  Ookhtomsky's  words  : 

"  May  not  the  culture  of  the  West  (or  an  excess  of  it)  with  its 
pronounced  individualistic  tendencies,  leading  almost  to  anarchy, 
inflict  on  the  Chinese,  these  Asiatics  who  have  never  known  the 
meaning  of  material  progress,  nor  have  ever  striven  for  it,  the 
misery  of  a  civilisation  out  of  harmony  with  their  natural  inclina- 
tions ?  " 

Now,  to  one  who  knows  the  Chinese  people,  a  people  who, 
though  cursed  with  a  corrupt  central  government,  are 
themselves  indefatigably  industrious  both  in  agriculture 
and  in  useful  arts,  and  certainly  far  more  civihsed  than 
Russia,  the  statement  that  the  Chinese  have  never  known 
the  meaning  of  material  progress  nor  even  striven  for  it, 
is  too  palpably  absurd  to  deserve  contradiction.  The 
Chinese  have  progressed  steadily  from  dynasty  to  dynasty, 
as  well  in  peaceful  and  orderly  self-government  as  in 
material  civiUsation.  They  are  as  curious  about  new 
inventions  as  any  Westerner.  Steamers  they  took  to 
almost  with  enthusiasm  ;  if  they  were  slower  to  adopt 
railways,  this  was  solely  because  of  the  well-justified  fear 
that  foreign-owned  railroads  would,  among  a  people 
helpless  from  a  military  point  of  view,  accentuate  foreign 
occupation.  The  country  is  intersected  by  magnificent 
waterways,  and  hence  railways  were  not  the  pressing 
necessities  they  were  in  many  other  countries  ;  but  the 
Chinese  authorities  were  gradually  introducing  them,  as 
far  as  the  poverty  of  the  empire  would  admit  of  their  doing 
so  without  borrowing  foreign  capital,  long  before  the  time 


"EX    ORIENTE    LUX!"  53 

when  the  Japanese  war  with  its  outrageous  indemnity 
forced  them  to  throw  themselves,  almost  unreservedly, 
into  the  arms  of  Western  financiers,  and  rendered  the 
hasty  development  of  the  Empire  under  foreign  admin- 
istration a  capital  necessity  in  order  to  enable  it  to  pay  off 
its  foreign  indebtedness.  The  real  point  with  Russia 
is  :  Are  these  administrators  to  be  of  the  nationality  of 
those  powers  who  have  for  years  long  past  had  the  trade 
of  China  in  their  hands — Britons,  Germans,  and  Americans 
chiefly — or  are  these  to  be  superseded  by  Russians,  the 
latest  comers  upon  the  field  ? 
The  Prince  proceeds  : — 

"  The  dominant  factor  in  the  history  of  Russia's  past  is  the 
influence  of  Asia.  ...  In  common  with  her  we  have  created 
the  idea  of  autocracy  (which  has  nothing  in  common  with  the 
Caesarism  of  the  West) ;  it  is  an  idea  that  pervades  all  Asia  and 
is  as  the  breath  of  life  to  her." 

All  of  US  who  know  China,  the  leading  and  most  popu- 
lous country  in  Asia,  and  whose  Empire,  leaving  out 
Siberia,  covers  two-thirds  of  that  vast  continent,  know 
that  the  life-breath  of  its  prosperity  is  precisely  its 
independence  of  autocracy.  Though  in  name  a  despotism, 
the  Emperor  is  little  more  than  a  figure-head  ;  all  official 
appointments  are  nominally  in  his  hands  and  his  decrees 
are  regarded  almost  as  divine,  the  "  Son  of  Heaven," 
like  the  Pope  of  Rome,  being  looked  upon  as  God's 
Vice-regent  on  earth  ;  but  he  has  not  like  the  Czar  of 
Russia  an  army  of  docile  Tchinovniks  to  see  his  decrees 
carried  out,  and  to  worry  and  oppress  the  people.  A 
Chinaman,  unless  in  the  rare  instances  when  he  is  en- 
trapped into  a  lawsuit  or  caught  as  a  criminal,  may  spend 
his  whole  life  without  ever  crossing  an  official.  In  the 
cities,  he  has  neither  licence  tax,  nor  house  tax,  nor 
municipal  rate  to  trouble  him.  No  tax  collector  calls  at 
his  door.  He  is  free  to  trade  and  travel  where  he  will ; 
passports  are  unknown.  He  settles  his  disputes  by  the 
arbitration  of  his  own  voluntarily  supported  guilds. 
A  nominal  land-tax,  a  customs  entry  tax  of  five  per  cent. 


54  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

ad  valorem,  and  a  transit  tax,  or  liki7i,  of  two  and  a  half 
per  cent.,  together  with  the  produce  of  the  Government 
salt  monopoly,  are  estimated  to  burden  the  Chinaman 
with  an  annual  contribution  amounting  to  less  than  half 
a  dollar  per  head,  as  against  an  exaction  from  the  far 
poorer  Russian  people  of  some  five  dollars  per  head.  In 
short,  Russia  is  a  real  autocracy.  China,  on  the  other 
hand,  is  a  democracy  in  all  but  name,  and  this  democracy 
has  been  gradually  evolved  and  fought  for  in  the  course 
of  centuries,  having  started  over  two  thousand  years  ago 
from  the  point  which  Russia  has  now  reached  in  her 
emergence  from  feudal  barbarism.  China  may,  in  short, 
be  said  to  have  reached  a  point  toward  which  the  Russian 
people  are  only  tending,  with  many  painful  struggles 
yet  to  be  passed  through  ;  and  to  suppose  that  "  the  idea 
of  autocracy  is  the  breath  of  life  "  to  the  Chinese  is  to  put 
back  the  clock  two  thousand  years. 

Finally,  we  come  to  the  point  that  "  America  should 
emancipate  herself  from  England's  political  tutelage, 
veiled  though  it  be  in  guise  of  cousinly  friendship.  The 
Chinese  question,  the  touchstone  of  this  friendship,  has 
already  displayed  the  duplicity  of  the  English,  etc." 
What  this  exactly  means  it  is  difficult  to  say.  America 
has  never  shown  any  disposition  to  place  herself  under 
England's  tutelage,  except  in  so  far  as  she  has  inherited 
her  language  and  her  common  law  from  the  same  British 
ancestry.  In  China,  she  may  be  said  to  have  followed 
England's  lead,  in  sharing  in  the  advantages  consequent 
upon  the  original  opening  up  of  the  country  by  England, 
much  as  England  followed  America  when  her  merchants 
settled  themselves  in  Japan,  as  a  consequence  of  the 
opening  up  of  that  country  by  the  treaty  enforced  upon 
the  Japanese  through  Commodore  Perry  in  1857.  But 
we  fail  to  see  any  duplicity  on  one  side  or  the  other  in 
cases  where  no  interference  with  the  rights  of  others  is 
effected  and  where  all  obtain  equal  privileges.  The 
duplicity  is  with  those  European  Powers  who,  under  the 
guise  of  philanthropy,  aim  at  excluding  their  neighbours 


"  EX    ORIENTE    LUX  !  "  55 

by  the  establishment  of  preferential  rights  for  themselves. 
That  America  should  suicidally  support  Russia  in  the 
latter  policy,  as  against  uniting  in  the  free  cosmopolitan 
policy  of  England  in  China,  is  a  supposition  almost  too 
childish  for  controversy.  The  only  question  for  America 
to  decide  is  :  How  far  is  it  wise  for  her  to  abandon  her 
present  expectant  policy  in  the  Far  East,  and  actively  to 
interest  herself  in  the  international  struggle  of  which 
the  Chinese  metropolis  has  unwittingly  become  the  dis- 
tracted centre  ? 

For  there  is  little  doubt  that  events  in  China  are 
hurrying  to  a  crisis,  and  that  every  nation  that  would 
safeguard  its  interests  in  the  face  of  such  a  crisis  must 
decide  on  a  course  of  action,  form  a  definite  policy,  and 
be  prepared  to  meet  eventualities  that  all  can  foresee. 

If,  then,  America  answers  the  question  we  have  posed 
above  in  the  affirmative,  and  abandons  her  present 
expectant  attitude,  shall  she  throw  in  her  lot  in  China  with 
Russia,  or  the  contrary  ?  Shall  she  work  on  her  own 
account  in  favour  of  the  "  open  door  "  ? 

Americans  who  read  Mr.  Holmstrem's  article  on  the 
Russian  side  and  who  have  read  Lord  Charles  Beresford's 
"  China  and  the  Powers  "  in  the  May  number  of  the  same 
review,  may  well  feel  flattered  at  the  way  in  which  the 
two  great  rival  Powers  of  modem  Asia  have  descended 
into  the  arena  to  court  and  win  the  favour  of  the  Great 
Repubhc.  "  Codlin  is  the  friend,"  says  the  Russian 
writer,  and  he  proceeds  to  show  up  the  villainy  and  the 
duplicity  of  her  would-be-friend.  Short.  It  is  well  to  see 
ourselves  as  others  see  us,  and  it  is  a  good  thing  for  an 
Englishman  to  be  reminded  once  more  that  the  leading 
Russians — those  who  guide  the  inert  masses  of  the 
ignorant,  peaceful  Russian  people,  profess  to  hold  pre- 
cisely the  same  suspicion  of  our  motives  and  the  same 
dread  of  our  actions  as  we  assuredly  hold  of  theirs. 
Doubtless,  such  suspicions  are  not  without  some  founda- 
tion on  either  side  ;  where  they  are  groundless,  it  is 
better  for  both  sides  to  clear  them  up  and  so  pave  the  way 


56  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

to  a  better  common  understanding.  It  is  because  we  are 
anxious  to  see  a  general  international  understanding 
brought  about  in  regard  to  China,  that  we  propose  to 
make  an  attempt  to  expose  the  many  fallacies  upon 
which  Mr.  Holmstrem's  suspicions  of  our  motives  are 
founded,  and  so  vindicate  British  policy  in  China  from  the 
indictment  he  brings  against  it. 

Mr.  Holmstrem  begins  :  "I  shall  now  demonstrate 
that  in  the  Chinese  question  England  has  already  out- 
witted the  Americans."  The  alleged  self-styled  demon- 
stration that  follows  is  by  no  means  clear  ;  but  a  few 
quotations  may  serve  to  show  the  gist  of  the  writer's 
arguments.  Thus  he  denies  all  sincerity  in  England's 
cry  for  the  "  open  door  "  and  "  equal  opportunities." 
He  tells  us  : 

"  The  banner  with  the  '  open  door  '  inscribed  upon  it,  which 
England  waves  so  furiously  before  the  eyes  of  the  desired  anti- 
Russian  concert  of  Powers,  is  nothing  else  but  the  scarlet  cape  of 
the  Spanish  bull-fighter,  which  is  meant  to  blind  the  bull  and 
make  him  an  easy  prey  to  the  aggressor.  It  only  aSords  England 
the  opportunity  of  plundering  China  elsewhere  as  much  as  her 
heart  can  wish." 

Now,  this  is  certainly  a  novel  view  of  the  "  open  door  " 
policy,  which  could  hardly  enter  the  head  of  any  one  but 
a  guileless  Russian.  As  facts  are  truer  guides  than 
theories,  let  us  look  at  the  facts  anent  England's  and 
Russia's  action  touching  the  open  door  in  the  past.  Our 
first  war  with  China,  due  to  the  arrogance  of  the  Imperial 
Commissioner  Lin  in  refusing  to  meet  and  discuss  matters 
with  the  British  Superintendents  of  Trade,  Lord  Napier 
and  Sir  George  Elliot,  resulted  in  the  Treaty  of  Nanking, 
signed  in  1842.  This  treaty  stipulated  for  the  opening 
up  to  foreign  trade  of  the  coast  ports  of  Canton,  Swatow, 
Amoy,  Ningpo  and  Shanghai,  long  known  as  the  "  Five 
Treaty  Ports,"  as  well  as  for  an  indemnity  to  the  mer- 
chants whose  property  had  been  arbitrarily  destroyed  at 
Canton.  Otherwise  the  loss  to  the  Chinese,  except  in 
prestige,  was  small.     Hongkong,  a  rocky,  barren  island  off 


"  EX    ORIENTE    LUX  !  "  57 

the  coast,  some  twelve  miles  square  in  area  and  of  no 
material  value  to  the  Chinese,  was  ceded  to  England  and 
by  her  made  a  free  port  open  to  all,  and  was  thus  the  first 
object  lesson  in  the  "  open  door  "  in  China.  Some  years 
passed  before  its  value  as  a  depot  for  the  China  trade 
became  apparent ;  so  much  so  that  its  abandonment 
was  openly  advocated  by  more  than  one  of  its  early  gov- 
ernors. The  "  Five  Ports "  were  opened  to  all 
"  foreigners,"  without  distinction,  for  trade  and  residence, 
and  would-be  settlers  in  them  had  to  make  their  own 
bargains  for  land  and  dwellings,  needless  to  say  at  fancy 
prices,  and  settle  down  in  the  outskirts  of  the  five  cities 
as  best  they  could.  The  Chinese  were  the  real  gainers 
by  the  treaty  :  the  five  cities  rapidly  increased  in  wealth 
and  importance,  under  the  golden  touch  of  foreign  capital 
and  energy — oases  of  prosperity  in  the  desert  of  general 
stagnation  that  seems  to  have  invaded  the  once  rich 
empire  in  the  wake  of  the  Manchu  conquest  of  1644. 
Outside  of  the  British,  other  Governments  paid  little  or 
no  attention  to  Chinese  affairs  at  this  period,  although 
their  nationals,  mainly  German  and  American,  gladly 
took  advantage  of  the  opening  made  by  Britain  and  were 
freely  welcomed  in  the  new  treaty  ports  and  in  the  colony 
of  Hongkong :  their  ships  soon  took  possession  of  the 
lion's  share  in  the  coasting  trade  that  now  sprang  up,  and 
their  merchants  ranked  equally  with  the  British  in 
importance.    . 

So  matters  went  on  for  fifteen  years,  trade  steadily 
progressing  to  the  enrichment  of  "  foreigner  "  and  native 
alike,  when  the  latent  animosity  of  the  Chinese  officials 
again  broke  into  flame.  The  treaty  of  1842  had  been 
forced  upon  the  Chinese  Government  against  its  will, 
and  although  the  Chinese  people  concerned,  traders  by 
instinct  and  education,  rejoiced  in  the  prosperity  brought 
to  their  doors,  the  Mandarins  sulked.  They  tried  in 
their  feeble  way  to  restrict  intercourse  as  much  as  possible. 
They  refused  to  allow  any  "  barbarian  "  to  defile  the 
sacred  city  of  Canton  with  his  presence  ;    they  never 


58  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

discouraged,  even  if  they  did  not  encourage,  isolated 
murders  of  Englishmen  who  went  beyond  the  limits  of 
the  "  factories  "  in  Canton,  some  on  boating,  some  on 
shooting  trips.  Memorials  went  up  to  the  throne,  stating 
that  the  "  foreign  barbarians  "  were  draining  the  country 
of  its  wealth.  Constant  sources  of  friction  sprang  up, 
which  it  was  impossible  to  induce  successive  Viceroys 
to  attempt  to  quell ;  requests  for  attention  to,  much  more 
for  compensation  for,  wrongs  inflicted  upon  British  sub- 
jects, met  with  only  evasive  answers  ;  until,  after  years 
of  patience,  as  is  the  way  with  our  Government,  hostilities 
had  to  be  resorted  to.  The  Viceroy,  Yeh  Min-chen, 
was  taken  prisoner  and  sent  to  Calcutta,  where  he  died. 
Canton  was  captured  and  ransomed  for  a  million  dollars. 
The  foreign  "  factories,"  or  settlement  outside  the  walls, 
were  destroyed  by  the  mob  ;  the  foreign  residents  fled  to 
Hongkong  and  to  the  neighbouring  Portuguese  settle- 
ment of  Macao.  The  Chusan  islands,  off  Ningpo,  were 
seized.  The  war,  so-called,  dragged  on,  failing  the 
appointment  by  the  Chinese  of  a  plenipotentiary  to  make 
peace  ;  until,  at  last,  in  1859,  the  Central  Government 
decided  to  send  a  plenipotentiary  to  treat  ;  whereupon 
the  British  Government  on  their  side  sent  an  envoy,  with 
an  escorting  fleet,  to  Tientsin  to  meet  him.  The  fleet  fell 
into  a  trap.  Heavy  guns  from  the  Taku  forts  were 
accurately  trained  upon  the  channel  (it  was  asserted  at 
the  time  by  Russian  help)  ;  Admiral  Hope  suffered  a 
defeat,  with  the  loss  of  four  hundred  men,  and  no  settle- 
ment was  come  to.  It  was  on  this  occasion  that  the 
American  Commodore  Tatnall  helped  to  pick  up  the 
wounded  British,  making  use  of  the  since  famous  saying, 
"  Blood  is  thicker  than  water." 

In  the  following  year,  the  French  joined  with  us  in 
sending  an  expedition  to  Peking.  The  Taku  forts  were 
destroyed,  the  Peiho  River  was  forced,  Peking  was 
captured,  the  Emperor  Hien-feng  fled  to  Mongolia,  the 
beautiful  Summer  Palace  was  unfortunately  burned  and 
its  treasures  ransacked,  as  punishment  for  Chinese  treach- 


The  Hua-Hua  Lo  at  Wuchang,  opposite  Hankow  ;  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
pavilions  in  China,  unfortunately  destroyed  by  fire. 


To  face  p.  59. 


"  EX    ORIENTE    LUX  !  "  59 

ery  in  torturing  and  murdering  the  party  sent  out  with 
Sir  Harry  Parkes  under  a  flag  of  truce.  In  the  end,  a 
fresh  treaty  of  perpetual  peace  and  good-will  was  signed 
by  Lord  Elgin  and  Baron  Gros,  on  behalf  of  the  Anglo- 
French,  and  by  Prince  Kung,  on  behalf  of  the  Chinese. 
This  peace  has  now  been  happily  kept  for  forty  years  by 
Great  Britain,  but  was  broken  by  the  French  in  1885. 

The  new  treaty  stipulated  for  the  opening  of  three  new 
Treaty  Ports  on  the  "  Great  River  " — Chinkiang,  Kiu- 
kiang,  and  Hankow — and  for  three  new  Coast  Ports  in  the 
north — Chef 00,  Tientsin,  and  Newchwang.  The  British 
Government  now  for  the  first  time  stipulated  for  fixed 
concessions,  or  the  setting  apart  of  a  plot  of  land,  averaging 
less  than  a  square  mile,  on  the  outskirts  of  the  respective 
towns  opened.  The  owners  of  the  land  upon  which  these 
concessions  were  situated,  land  mostly  submerged  at  high 
water,  were  handsomely  paid  for  their  rights.  The 
land  was  ceded  to  the  Crown  ;  and  after  being  laid  out  in 
half  acre  building  lots,  was  leased,  by  the  medium  of  the 
British  Consulate  established  in  each  port,  to  all  comers, 
irrespective  of  nationality.  Later  on,  municipal  councils 
of  the  residents  of  all  nationalities  were  formed  for  the 
purpose  of  policing  the  new  settlements,  laying  out  roads, 
drainage,  planting,  building  bunds  and  quays  for  shipping  ; 
until  now  these  aforetime  swamps  form  oases  of  order, 
verdure,  and  a  wealth  of  architecture  in  the  midst  of 
wildernesses  of  Chinese  dirt,  poverty,  and  decay.  In  the 
so-called  British  settlement  of  Hankow,  situated  six 
hundred  miles  up  the  Yangtse  River,  as  a  consequence  of 
the  decay  of  the  Chinese  tea  trade  with  England  and  the 
growth  of  that  with  Russia,  the  bulk  of  the  river  frontage 
and  the  handsomest  mercantile  establishments  are  owned 
by  Russians,  who  find  no  difftculty  in  co-operating  with 
their  British  and  German  fellow-citizens  on  the  concessions 
and  in  working  together  for  the  common  good.  This  is  a 
part  of  what  Mr.  Holmstrem,  endeavouring  to  throw  dust 
in  the  eyes  of  the  American  people,  styles  "  the  annexa- 
tion by  the  British  of  all  the  principal  elements  of  the  social 


6o  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

life  of  China,  of  all  the  branches  of  her  industry,  trade  and 
administration,  thus  instituting  a  practical,  if  not  a 
theoretical,  protectorate  of  Great  Britain  over  the  whole 
of  China."  It  will  be  interesting  to  note,  by  contrast, 
what  the  Russian  Government  has  done  in  this  same 
Hankow,  since  it  recently  set  to  work,  avowedly  to  arrest 
the  not  unnatural  growth  of  British  influence  in  China. 

Owing  to  the  influx  of  foreign  nationalities  into  the 
strictly  limited  British  concession  at  Hankow,  English 
merchants,  settled  there,  found  it  to  their  advantage  to 
gain  more  room  for  their  factories  by  purchasing  direct 
from  Chinese  owners  land  outside  the  Concession.  The 
title-deeds  for  these  lands  were  duly  sealed  by  the  Chinese 
Governor  of  Hankow,  and  subsequently,  in  due  course, 
registered  by  the  British  Consul,  as  far  back  as  the  sixties. 
In  1897,  the  Russian  Government  came  upon  the  scene 
and  compelled  the  pliable  Chinese  Government  to  cede 
them  this  land,  for  a  separate  Russian  concession,  saying  : 
"Leave  us  to  settle  with  the  British."  They  obtained 
the  grant  of  the  land,  and  then  landed  Cossacks  to  turn 
the  unfortunate  British  merchants  out  of  their  property. 
The  British  Government,  anxious  to  remain  on  friendly 
terms  with  Russia,  refrained  from  answering  force  by 
force,  as  they  would  have  been  justified  in  doing,  and  is 
now  limiting  its  efforts  to  the  obtaining  of  pecuniary 
compensation  for  these  arbitrary  ejections.  Yet  Mr. 
Holmstrem  tells  his  American  readers  that  "  siding  with 
England  will  mean  the  destruction  of  China  by  revolu- 
tionary methods."  It  is  instructive  to  contemplate  the 
analogy  and  the  contrasts  in  the  condition  of  the  two  vast 
empires  of  Russia  and  China.  The  population  of  both  is 
mainly  composed  of  a  poor,  hardworking,  peaceably 
disposed  peasantry,  but  governed  by  corrupt  and  un- 
scrupulous officials,  who  are  constantly  leading  the  peace- 
loving  peoples  they  rule  over  into  troubles  and  adventures 
which  only  end  in  increasing  their  poverty.  The  civilian 
Chinaman,  like  the  ordinary  civilian  Russian,  is  an  excep- 
tionally quiet,  peaceful  individual ;    he  knows  little  of 


"  EX   ORIENTE    LUX  !  "  6r 

and  cares  still  less  for  politics,  which,  he  considers,  his 
superiors  are  paid  to  attend  to.  Yet  turn  a  Russian  into 
a  Tchinovnik,  or  a  Chinese  into  a  Kwan,  and  his  natural 
amiability  and  honesty  seem  to  be  at  once  unaccountably 
transformed  into  the  opposite  qualities  of  oppression  and 
deceit.  Certain  it  is,  in  any  case,  that  Anglo-Saxon 
methods  do  not  square  with  those  of  Russia  ;  and  the 
inference  is  that  we,  who  are  convinced  that  the  "  open 
door  "  with  equality  of  opportunity  is  the  best  policy  for 
China  and  the  best  for  all  foreign  nations  who  desire  to 
have  purely  trading  relations  with  her,  would  do  well  to 
unite  in  a  pacific  endeavour  to  maintain  this  policy. 

Anoth^  of  Mr.  Holmstrem's  grotesque  statements,  of 
the  falsity  of  which  we  propose  to  give  one  more  instance, 
is  the  following  : 

"  The  ideas  of  Prince  Ookhtomsky  and  the  measures  proposed 
by  the  Rev.  Gilbert  Reid  (American  missionary  in  North  China) 
as  representing  respectively  Russia  and  the  United  States,  are 
conservative  in  the  best  application  of  the  word  ;  they  aim  at 
the  welfare  of  an  independent  nation,  while  on  the  other  hand 
the  English  schemes  are  revolutionary  in  theory  and  meant  to 
be  carried  out  by  violence  in  order  to  pander  to  the  lust  of  the 
English  for  gain  and  conquest." 

The  instance  is  this.  Newchwang,  as  one  of  the  Treaty 
Ports,  possesses  a  branch  of  the  Imperial  Chinese  Maritime 
Customs,  at  which  the  treaty  tariff  of  five  per  cent. 
ad  valorem  is  payable  on  all  imported  merchandise,  includ- 
ing railway  material.  The  limits  of  these  Treaty  Ports 
are  everywhere  strictly  defined,  and  no  cargo  is  allowed 
to  be  shipped  or  discharged  outside  of  them.  In  1898 
Russian  vessels,  laden  with  railway  and  other  material, 
entered  the  port  of  Newchwang  and  were  requested  to 
conform  to  the  official  Customs'  regulations.  The  vessels 
thereupon  proceeded  to  land  their  cargo  outside  the  port, 
in  defiance  of  the  rules  which  the  Commissioner  of  Cus- 
toms, without  arms  at  his  back,  was  unable  to  enforce. 
Which,  in  this  case,  was  the  conservative  and  which  the 
revolutionary  method  ?  Would  any  other  Power,  having 
treaties  with  China,  have  thus  set  at  defiance  the  consti- 


62  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

tuted  authorities  of  the  country  ?  Truly,  in  quoting 
Mr.  Holmstrem's  absurd  conception  of  British  policy  in 
China,  we  are  compelled  to  say  :  "  Mutato  nomine  de  te 
fabula  narratur."  This  same  Newchwang  has  special 
interest  for  Americans,  as  being  the  leading  port  of  entry 
in  China  of  American  cotton  goods.  Opened  originally, 
as  we  have  seen,  by  the  efforts  of  British  statesmanship, 
two-thirds  of  its  trade  is  in  American  goods,  and  it  is  a 
significant  fact  that,  upon  the  British  Government's 
recently  endeavouring  to  settle  outstanding  disputes 
with  Russia  in  regard  to  railway  concessions  in  Northern 
China,  by  a  convention  which  should  stipulate  for  equal 
rates  for  all  by  the  proposed  railroads,  Russia  then  refused 
to  be  bound  by  a  promise  that  on  her  railways  in  China 
she  would  not  distinguish  against  non-Russian  merchan- 
dise by  preferential  rates.  {Vide  British  Blue  Book, 
Affairs  in  China.) 

We  have  seen  that,  in  the  treaty  made  with  China  by 
the  Anglo-French  plenipotentaries  as  a  consequence  of  the 
war  of  i860,  barring  a  small  pecuniary  indemnity,  no  ex- 
clusive advantages  whatever  were  taken  by  the  two  Powers 
who  had  borne  the  burden  and  heat  of  the  day,  and  many 
of  whose  citizens  had  been  treacherously  murdered  by 
the  Chinese  in  cold  blood.  Not  so,  however,  with 
Russia — of  which  Mr.  Holmstrem  writes,  "  The  independ- 
ence and  integrity  of  China  is  a  fundamental  principle  of 
Russian  policy  in  Asia  "  :  Russia  did  not  hesitate  to  take 
advantage  of  China's  weakness  at  the  time  to  advance 
her  frontier  one  thousand  miles  to  the  south-east,  and  to 
absorb  the  Amur  Valley  and  Northern  Manchuria  down 
to  the  Korean  frontier.  And  again,  quite  recently,  posing 
as  the  protector  of  China,  Russia  turned  the  Japanese  out 
of  the  Liaotung  peninsula  and  subsequently  seized  the 
peninsula  herself.including  the  naval  depot  of  Port  Arthur ; 
thus  converting  the  only  naval  fortress  owned  by  the 
Chinese  into  a  Russian  possession  and  thereby  advancing 
her  frontier  down  to  the  Gulf  of  Pechili  and  threatening 
the  very  existence  of  the  Chinese  empire  by  rendering 


"  EX    ORIENTE    LUX  !  "  63 

Peking  untenable.  The  practical  proposition  made 
by  England,  that  the  terminus  of  the  Siberian  rail- 
way should  be  a  Treaty  Port  open  to  all,  was  scouted 
by  Russia.  Is  this  what  Mr.  Holmstrem  has  in  mind 
when  he  writes  : 

"  Such  a  humane  interpretation  of  the  idea  of  business,  as 
bringing  fresh  Power  and  salvation  to  people,  commends  itself 
to  the  Russian  mind  ;  hitherto  we  have  been  accustomed  to  see 
'  business  '  interpreted  in  the  English  sense  of  rapine  and  slavery 
— economic  and  political — the  famous  murder  for  gain  !  " 

The  truth  is  that,  when  Russia  changed  the  plan  of  her 
Siberian  railway,  and,  instead  of  making  its  terminus  in 
an  ice-free  port  on  the  Pacific,  as  was  the  original  intention, 
decided  to  prolong  it  into  the  Gulf  of  Pechili  and  make  the 
terminus  in  Chinese  territory,  she  found  the  region  already 
in  commercial  occupation  of  other  nations — England, 
Germany,  and  America — and  was  unable  to  take  up 
exclusive  privileges  there  without  interfering  with  treaty 
rights  already  acquired  there  by  other  Powers.  Hence 
the  furious  outburst  of  spleen  and  misstatement  dis- 
played in  this  egregious  article.  The  Chinese  Maritime 
Customs,  a  cosmopolitan  service  which  has  totally 
reformed  the  collection  of  duties  and  for  the  first 
time  in  its  history  provided  the  central  government  of 
China  with  a  reliable  revenue,  was  as  a  red  rag  to  the 
Russian  bull  ;  hence  one  of  Russia's  first  moves,  when  she 
came  into  the  field,  was  to  manoeuvre  for  the  supersession 
of  the  present  Inspector-General  of  Customs  by  a  Russian. 

Again,  China  had  already  commenced  tentatively  to 
build  railways  with  her  own  capital — a  natural  and  not 
unpraiseworthy  ambition — and  had  already  in  this  way 
constructed  a  most  successful  line  from  Shan-hai-kwan 
to  Tientsin  and  Peking,  under  the  engineering  superin- 
tendence of  a  capable  railroad  man,  Mr.  Kinder.  Mr. 
Kinder  had  served  the  Chinese  Government  well  and 
faithfully,  and  for  far  less  pay  than  such  valuable  services 
would  command  in  Europe  or  America.  But  he  must 
forsooth  be  ousted  to  make  room  for  a  Russian,  and  the 


64  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Chinese,  loth  as  they  were  to  part  with  their  old  and  tried 
servant,  would  have  had  no  alternative  but  to  dismiss  him 
at  Russian  dictation,  had  not  the  outcry  at  this  contem- 
plated injustice  been  so  great  that  the  British  Government, 
notoriously  loth  to  interfere  in  what  it  is  pleased  to  con- 
sider private  affairs,  was  compelled  at  last  to  put  its  foot 
down  and  support  Mr.  Kinder,  whereat  the  Chinese 
Government  felt  emboldened  to  refuse  the  Russian  de- 
mand. This  is  another  instance  of  how,  in  Mr.  Holmstrem's 
words,  Russia  would  guard  China  :  "  We  are  an  Asiatic 
Power  and  as  such  must  guard  the  East,  because  its 
consolidation  means  our  own  consolidation."  Whatever 
this  enigmatical  phrase  may  mean,  it  assuredly  does  not 
point  to  the  "  open  door,"  nor  can  we  see  in  it  an  argument 
to  induce  America  to  give  up  endeavouring  to  maintain 
the  policy  of  the  open  door,  and,  instead,  to  join  hands 
with  Russia  in  thwarting  a  policy  profitable  to  all  who 
have  purely  commercial,  as  opposed  to  territorial,  designs 
upon  the  empire  of  China. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  the  British  Government  should 
have  acceded  to  the  suggestion  of  the  Chinese  and  con- 
sented to  the  occupation  of  Wei-hai-wei,  as  a  counterpoise 
to  the  Russian  occupation  of  Port  Arthur  and  to  the  Ger- 
man occupation  of  Kiao-Chao  Bay.  This  occupation, 
valueless  as  it  is  to  England,  is  undoubtedly  a  contra- 
diction to  the  policy  of  the  open  door,  and  in  so  far  is 
wrong  in  principle.  Notwithstanding  that  the  lease  of 
this  place  forte  from  China  in  no  way  affects  freedom  of 
trade,  it  is  an  instance  of  the  opportunist  policy  now 
unfortunately  popular,  chiefly  because  it  avoids  the 
necessity  of  planning  out  and  executing  a  definite  line  of 
conduct  in  any  course  of  circumstances.  It  would,  I  have 
always  contended,  have  been  better  to  risk  the  wrath  of 
Russia,  and  leave  our  ships  moored  in  Port  Arthur  in 
1898,  and  so  have  reserved  for  the  Chinese,  to  whom  it 
then  belonged  and  by  whose  permission  our  ships  were 
there,  their  last  remaining  fortress.  This  was  not  done 
and  Wei-hai-wei  was  afterwards  accepted.     But  Wei-hai- 


"EX   ORIENTE    LUX!"  65 

wei,  unlike  Port  Arthur,  is  no  fortress  in  the  modern  sense, 
and  it  is  not  Hkely  that  the  British  Government  will  spend 
the  millions  necessary  to  make  it  one.  It  could  only  be 
useful  in  the  event  of  a  war  with  Russia,  which  no  one 
contemplates.  Should  such  a  calamity  occur,  however, 
it  would  be  easy  enough  to  gain  a  footing  there  or  else- 
where in  the  North  when  the  time  came.  The  motive  of 
the  Chinese,  in  offering  us  Wei-hai-wei,  must  have  been 
to  keep  France  and  Russia  out,  or,  probably,  to  embroil 
us  with  Russia.  In  any  case  we  should  have  done  better 
to  arrange  with  China  to  leave  the  place  in  the  hands  of  the 
Japanese  who  originally  held  it. 

The  non-alienation  of  the  Yangtse  Valley,  mutually 
agreed  upon  by  the  British  and  Chinese  Governments, 
arouses  the  unmitigated  wrath  of  Mr.  Holmstrem,  and 
forms  the  main  theme  of  his  argument  and  appeal  to  the 
Americans  to  beware  of  being  outwitted  by  the  perfidy 
and  rapacity  of  the  English.  Now,  what  does  this  non- 
alienation  treaty  really  mean  ?  It  means  simply  the 
maintenance  of  the  status  quo  as  long  as  China  is  able  to 
defend  it  .  but  that  if  some  other  Power,  taking  advantage 
of  China's  weakness,  should  invade  the  Yangtse  Valley, 
we  should  have  the  right  of  protesting.  The  power  of 
preventing  it  we  should  be  free  to  exercise  in  any  case,  and 
we  need  no  treaty  to  attain  it.  Whether  we  should  exercise 
it  is  doubtful,  if  we  may  take  as  a  precedent  the  similar 
stipulation  made  by  the  British  Government  in  regard  to 
the  "  Shan  "  state  of  Kiang-hung,  on  the  Yunnan  border. 
This  the  Chinese  were  compelled  to  hand  over  to  France, 
with  whose  Tongking  conquests  it  is  now  incorporated. 
In  this  case,  our  treaty  with  China  turned  out  to  be  not 
worth  the  paper  it  was  written  on  ;  and  so  probably  will 
it  be,  if  the  occasion  ever  arises,  with  our  famous  treaty 
regarding  the  Yangtse  Valley. 

Now,  it  is  the  prospect  of  the  possible  alienation  of  this 
region,  the  main  seat  of  our  trade  in  China,  that  exercises 
the  mind  of  British  writers  upon  the  China  question.  We 
cannot  get  over  the  fact,  which  is  so  exasperating  to  Mr. 


66  GLEANINGS   FROM    CHINA 

Holmstrem,  that  England  by  her  trade  has,  and  deserves 
to  have,  a  preponderating  influence  in  China.  How  long 
her  trade  will  continue  to  preponderate  is  doubtful ;  but 
it  is  the  plain  duty  of  every  one  who,  like  myself,  is 
engaged  in  that  trade,  to  endeavour  to  preserve  it,  and, 
seeing  that  every  step  in  advance  that  the  Russian  Colossus 
has  made  in  Asia  has  resulted  in  the  relentless  shutting 
out  of  British  and  American  manufactures,  as  well  as 
British  and  American  missionaries,  from  each  fresh  area 
annexed,  we,  who  have  watched  this  ominous  progress 
during  long  residence  in  the  East,  are  impelled  to  tell  the 
truth  and  to  warn  our  countrymen  and  allied  trading 
nations  of  the  inevitable  result  of  the  invasion  of  China 
by  Russia.  Hence  the  unconcealed  wrath  of  the  writer 
of  Ex  Oriente  Lux  with  those  who  innocently  attempt  to 
throw  light  on  the  Far  Eastern  problem.  Lord  Charles 
Beresford  is  denounced  as  having  been  sent  on  a  secret 
mission,  the  result  of  which,  had  he  been  a  secret  envoy, 
he  would  certainly  not  have  given  to  the  world,  and  to 
Russia  especially,  as  he  has  done  in  his  well-known 
Break-up  of  China.  A  Russian  cannot  get  out  of  his  head 
the  fact,  true  in  his  own  country,  that  all  who  speak  and 
write  authoritatively  speak  with  authority,  little  knowing 
how  difficult  we  find  it  to  gain  from  our  Government  the 
hearing  we  strive  for.  Thus  again,  speaking  of  Lord 
Charles'  mission,  Mr.  Holmstrem  writes  : 

"  He  was  but  an  emissary,  he  has  fulfilled  a  mission  not  wholly 
self-imposed,  and  behind  him  stand  such  men  as  Colquhoun  and 
Archibald  Little,  who  may  be  regarded  as  men  expressing  the 
mind  of  the  British  Government,  as  the  Admiral  is  one  of  their 
men  of  action." 

I  should  not  have  taken  such  pains  to  quote  Mr. 
Holmstrem's  arguments,  nor  have  thus  endeavoured  to 
controvert  them  in  detail,  but  for  the  fact  that  prominence 
has  been  given  to  them  in  an  international  organ  like 
the  North  American  Review,  whose  influence  is  such  as  to 
■weigh  upon  the  decisions  of  thinking  men  on  both  sides 
of  the  Atlantic.     I  am  therefore  anxious  that  readers 


"EX   ORIENTE   LUX!"  67 

should  have  all  sides  of  the  question  before  them — and 
especially  with  regard  to  the  Yangtse  Valley,  which 
England  is  represented  as  trying  to  annex.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  the  British  Government  has  not  taken  a  single 
step  pointing  to  annexation,  it  has  not  defined  its  area 
nor  has  it  seized  an  inch  of  its  territory  :  its  gunboats 
occasionally  ascend  the  Great  River,  but  so  do  those  of  all 
other  nations.  When  I  passed  through  Hankow  in  the 
summer  of  1898,  a  Russian  man-of-war  was  conspicuous, 
moored  off  the  so-called  British,  but  really  cosmopolitan, 
settlement.  I  have  suggested,  it  is  true,  in  despair  of 
seeing  the  integrity  of  China,  for  which  I  have  long  and 
ardently  pleaded,  continuing  to  be  upheld — since  the 
attempted  seizure  of  Manchuria  by  Russia  and  of 
Tsing-tao  by  Germany — that  England  should  ear-mark 
the  Yangtse  Valley  as  her  "  sphere  of  interest  "  before 
other  Powers,  notably  France,  who,  with  Russia,  is 
making  ceaseless  efforts  to  acquire  exclusive  rights  there, 
should  have  shut  us  out.  I  am  Jingo  enough  to  desire 
that,  if  there  is  to  be  a  fight  over  China,  England  shall  not 
be  out  of  it.  I  do  not  believe  in  abdicating  where  we  have 
long  held  prescriptive  rights  ;  and  hence  my  advice, 
("  veiled  sentences,"  Mr.  Holmstrem  calls  them),  in  a 
recent  number  of  the  Asiatic  Quarterly  Review,  that  if 
all  other  European  nations  have  determined  to  partition 
China  and  our  pacific  remonstrances  (in  favour  of  the 
"  open  door  ")  are  of  no  avail,  then  that  it  is  the  duty  of 
the  Government  to  see  that  Britain  takes  her  share,  if 
only  as  a  stake  and  means  of  bargain  for  the  open  door ; 
but  I  added,  and  this  Mr.  Holmstrem  does  not  quote  : 

"  The  open  door  all  round  is  a  true,  clear  policy  ;  it  is  humane, 
just  to  the  Chinese,  and  in  the  interest  of  every  nation  that  seeks 
trade  and  intercourse  with  the  Chinese,  with  no  ulterior  motives 
of  preferential  advantages  for  itself.  The  nations  who  now  hold 
the  lion's  share  of  the  China  trade  are  deeply  interested  in  uphold- 
ing the  status  quo,  and  it  ought  not  to  be  beyond  the  powers  of 
diplomacy  to  bring  about  an  agreement  between  them  to  resist 
farther  aggression  upon  China,  and  to  compel  the  Russians  to 
keep  the  door  open,  even  in  Manchuria,  on  the  terms  of  our 
treaties  with  China.     A  joint  protectorate  by  these  nations,  not 


68  GLEANINGS   FROM   CHINA 

a  political  interference,  but  an  assurance  against  outside  aggres- 
sion, should  meet  the  case  if  it  can  be  brought  about."  * 

Unhappily  any  such  combination  to  save  the  venerable 
survival  from  antiquity  which  appeals  so  strongly  to  the 
cultured  imagination,  as  does  the  tottering  empire  of  China, 
both  as  an  object  of  antiquarian  interest  and  as  a  poten- 
tiality of  unlimited  trade,  just  now  appears  a  Utopian 
dream.  It  may  not  always  be  so,  if  we  can  persuade 
others  to  share  our  views  ;  if  we  cannot  do  so,  nothing  is 
left  for  us  but  to  protect  our  interests  as  best  we  may,  and 
thus,  though  I  for  one  do  not  think  it  likely,  the  occupa- 
tion of  the  Yangtse  Valley  may  yet  come  within  the 
sphere  of  practical  politics,  which  it  certainly  has  not 
done  so  far.  Even  if  it  should  do  so,  it  will  still  mean  the 
"  open  door  "  to  all,  as  far  as  trade  is  concerned,  as 
against  the  closed  doors  of  all  Russian  and  French 
annexations  up  to  date  in  Eastern  Asia.  Hence  the 
interest  of  America,  if  she  wishes  to  keep  the  door  open 
to  her  trade  in  China,  in  giving,  at  least,  her  moral  support 
to  those  who  are  struggling  to  the  best  of  their  ability  to 
controvert  the  opposite  alternative  of  preferential  rail- 
way rates  and  preferential  tariffs  generally. 

Fortunately,  the  Americans  resident  in  China  and  those 
who  are  familiar  with  the  subject  are  all  on  our  side. 
The  American  Asiatic  Association  and  the  British  China 
Association  march  hand-in-hand  toward  a  common  object 
— the  upholding  of  our  treaties  in  China  and  the  main- 
tenance of  the  status  quo.  In  the  winter  of  1898-99  in 
Shanghai,  the  union  of  the  American  and  the  British, 
supported  too  by  the  German  residents,  was  successful 
in  foiling  the  intrigues  of  the  French,  unwisely  backed  by 
Russia,  against  the  extension  of  the  area  of  the  cosmopol- 
itan settlement.  This  is  what  Mr.  Holmstrem  apparently 
alludes  to  as  the  "  EngHsh  advance  from  Shanghai," 
adding  that  "  English  schemes  are  revolutionary  in  theory 
and  meant  to  be  carried  out  by  violence  in  order  to  pander 
to  the  lust  of  the  English  for  gain  and  conquest."  Now, 
*  See  page  103. 


"EX    ORIENTE    LUX!"  69 

it  cannot  be  too  generally  known  that,  although  the  square 
mile  of  land  that  was  assigned  for  British  residence  by 
the  Chinese  in  1842  was  originally  a  settlement  exclusively 
British,  yet  a  few  years  later  (I  think  in  1848)  the  British 
Government  abandoned  the  exclusive  jurisdiction  under 
Consul  Balfour,  and  started  it  as  the  cosmopolitan  settle- 
ment with  municipal  rule,  but  under  Chinese  sovereignty, 
which  it  seems  happily  destined  to  remain  for  all  time  to 
come.  And  it  was  fortunate  for  the  world  that  our  Gov- 
ernment of  the  day  (Lord  Palmerston)  inaugurated  this 
liberal  policy  ;  as,  by  so  doing,  they  provided  an  object 
lesson  in  international  combination  for  the  common  good, 
quite  unique  of  its  kind,  which  may  some  day  provide 
a  precedent  for  common  international  action  on  a  larger 

scale —  "  When  the  battle-flag  is  furled 

In  the  parliament  of  man,  the  federation  of  the  world." 

For  there  is  no  necessary  conflict  of  international 
interests  in  China  ;  the  field  is  so  immense  that  there  is 
room  for  the  occupation  of  all  the  spare  capital  of  both 
Europe  and  America,  for  a  century  to  come,  in  exploiting 
the  undeveloped  resources  of  this  huge  empire. 

Let  every  one,  without  regard  to  nationality,  be  author- 
ised to  work  at  any  mining  or  railroad  scheme  for  which 
he  can  produce  the  bona  fide  capital,  and  the  next  capitalist 
on  the  scene  would  still  find  work  to  do.  So  far,  in  all 
the  concessions  granted,  Chinese  interests  have  been 
thoroughly  safeguarded.  In  fact,  China  is  the  main 
beneficiary  under  them  ;  for  all  the  work  done  and  the 
capital  invested  revert  to  the  Chinese  Government  after  a 
term  more  or  less  short.  Russia  alone  forms  an  excep- 
tion, having  insisted  on  the  right  to  build  railways  on 
Chinese  territory  which  remain  under  her  exclusive  con- 
trol, and  it  is  these  railways  that  form  a  menace  both  to 
Europeans  and  Chinese,  to  the  latter  politically,  and  to  the 
former  commercially.  It  is,  too,  a  significant  fact  that, 
to  the  opposition  of  Russia,  allied  with  France,  should  have 
been  due  the  delay  in  the  much  needed  extension  of  the 
cosmopolitan   settlement   at   Shanghai.     This   extension 


70  GLEANINGS    FROM   CHINA 

was  a  necessity  not  easily  appreciated  by  those  unfamiliar 
with  the  conditions  under  which  Shanghai  exists.  The 
settlement  is  administered  by  a  Municipal  Council 
elected  annually  from  among  the  cosmopolitan  residents, 
and  the  result  is  the  enjoyment,  within  this  square  mile, 
of  all  the  amenities  of  Western  civilisation.  But,  Shanghai 
having  become  the  commercial  metropolis  of  China, 
populous  suburbs  have  grown  up  around  the  privileged 
district,  outside  of  municipal  rule  :  their  insanitary  con- 
dition is  a  menace  to  the  health  of  the  overcrowded  "settle- 
ment "  and  hence  their  incorporation  is  a  vital  necessity 
which  has  at  last,  after  many  years  of  weary  waiting, 
been  officially  acknowledged.  This  is  the  game  of 
"  grab  "  which  Mr.  Holmstrem  so  virtuously  deprecates. 

The  truth  is  that  wherever  men  of  Caucasian  race 
congregate  in  the  East,  expansion  is  a  necessity  and  by 
no  means  a  "  lust  of  conquest."  "  Foreign  settlements  " 
bring  wealth  and  prosperity  to  previously  decaying 
regions ;  by  our  enterprise  we  "  foreigners "  attract 
population  which  threatens  to  crowd  us  out ;  Asiatic  con- 
ditions arise  under  which  the  European  in  hot  climates 
cannot  exist,  and  extension  follows  to  the  great  benefit 
of  native  and  European  alike.  This  applies  equally  to 
the  "  Hongkong  extension  "  formed  by  the  recent  cession 
of  Kow-loon,  which  "  formidable  advance  "  our  author 
is  never  tired  of  citing  as  the  latest  instance  of  "  English 
rapine  and  slavery — the  famous  murder  for  gain." 

The  catchpenny  statement  that  England  is  the  inveter- 
ate enemy  of  America  and  ever  scheming  to  injure  her, 
is  too  absurd  to  merit  contradiction.  The  argument  that 
"  both  countries  (Russia  and  America)  afford  opportuni- 
ties for  liberty  in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word,  as  founded 
on  genuine  equality  of  rights  and  certainly  realise  this 
idea  more  than  any  other  country,"  will  certainly  be 
derided,  as  far  as  Russia  is  concerned.  The  more  specious 
argument  that  "  it  was  from  Asia  that  the  glorious  princi- 
ples of  truth,  of  faith  and  of  love  were  sent  into  the  world 
for  the  salvation  of  mankind,"   and  that  hence  "  the 


"EX   ORIENTE    LUX!"  71 

Americans  must  look  far  back  and  far  into  the  Asiatic 
East  in  order  to  shape  their  progress,"  may  be  true  if  it 
means  that  they  should  take  the  teaching  of  the  Saviour 
as  their  guide  in  politics,  but  not  if,  as  Mr.  Holmstrem's 
further  remarks  would  appear  to  indicate,  it  means  that 
they  should  re-baptise  themselves  in  the  civilisation  of 
China,  and  that  "  the  American  democracy  itself,  in  order 
to  be  something  whole  and  undivided,  must  keep  in  touch 
with  the  spiritual  forces  which  are  the  symbol  of  unity 
— yea,  which  are  unity  itself — and  which  underlay  that 
ancient  civiHsation."  The  conclusion  is  "  that  if  America 
would  be  true  to  herself  and  to  her  noble  traditions  she 
must  come  over  to  our  side  and  accept  the  Eastern  concep- 
tion," for  "  we  have  common  foes  bent  on  mischief,  as 
Americans  will  soon  realise  on  their  own  continent ;  it 
would  be  well  for  us  to  reach  one  another  a  helping  hand 
where  needed." 

Flattering  as  it  may  be  to  the  Great  Republic  to  have 
on  hand  two  suitors  for  her  favour  like  Russia  and  Great 
Britain,  I  do  not  fear  that  she  can  long  hesitate  in  deciding 
whose  policy  in  Asia  best  promotes  her  interests  ;  whether 
China  should  be  developed  under  Russian  autocracy,  or 
under  conditions  of  free  competition  for  all  as  it  will  be 
wherever  British  influence  predominates.  Idealists,  like 
Mr.  Stead,  see  only  the  good  side  of  Russian  aims  and 
civiHsation,  but  practical  men  of  business  feel  the  pressure 
of  her  exclusive  commercial  policy  and  dread  the  arbitrary 
rule  of  her  officials.  There  are  two  Russias,  a  liberal, 
peaceful  Russia,  and  an  aggressive,  despotic  Russia.  The 
latter  is  now  in  the  ascendant,  and  we  have  cause  to  fear 
its  action  in  China.  No  one  knows  better  than  do  Russian 
publicists  and  politicians  that  the  British  Premier,  Lord 
Sahsbury,  spoke  the  truth  when  he  said  in  1898  in  the 
House  of  Lords :  "  If  I  am  asked  what  is  our  policy  in  China, 
it  is  the  maintenance  of  the  integrity  and  independence 
of  the  Empire  and  its  guidance  in  the  paths  of  reform." 
All  nations  have  been  invited  to  join  us  in  upholding  this 
integrity  ;   had  Russia  been  sincere  in  her  protestations. 


72  GLEANINGS   FROM    CHINA 

she  would  have  promptly  joined  us  in  protecting  the  Em- 
pire from  outside  aggressions.  Germany  could  not  then 
have  seized  Kiao-chao,  and  Manchuria  would  not  have 
been  lost  to  China.  ^  Possibly,  we  may  yet,  with  the  moral 
support  of  America,  succeed  in  upholding  what  is  still 
left  of  the  integrity  of  the  tottering  Empire. 

The  fact  of  the  matter  is,  as  a  Russian  writer  in  the 
London  Daily  Mail  has  recently  pointed  out,  that  Russia 
is  passing  through  a  crisis  at  the  present  moment. 

"  The  dark  spirits  collected  round  the  throne  by  the  late 
Emperor  are  still  there,  but  the  leaden  hand  that  gave  to  their 
actions  some  uniformity,  is  gone,  and  at  present  we  have,  instead 
of  one  irresponsible  potentate,  quite  a  number  of  them.  The  main 
feature  of  the  foreign  policy  of  Russia  is  to  press  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  line  of  least  resistance.  The  pushing  Russian  foreign 
policy  is  mainly  due  to  financial  considerations.  The  mass  of 
the  population  is  ruined,  consequently  the  internal  market  is 
going  down.  Therefore,  all  the  tendencies  and  hopes  of  Russian 
financiers  are  fixed  upon  transferring  the  centre  of  gravity  of 
taxation  from  agriculture  to  manufacturing  industry,  and  thus 
saving  the  State  Budget.  M.  Witte  is  artificially  feeding  and 
rearing  that  industry,  and  in  the  meantime  foreign  markets  are 
being  hastily  created  by  means  of  all  kinds  of  annexations,  and 
then  safeguarded  from  foreign  competition.  The  success  of  this 
financial  policy  depends  on  whether  M.  Witte  succeeds  in  streng- 
thening the  capitalistic  productiveness  of  the  manufacturing 
industry,  before  the  financial  crisis  arising  out  of  the  ruin  of  the 
agricultural  population  comes.  M.  Witte  is  showing  signs  of 
alarm  that  he  will  not  succeed.  He  has  already  exhausted  all  the 
means  at  his  disposal  for  keeping  up  the  balance.  All  the  tricks 
for  favourably  arranging  the  items  of  the  State  Budget  on  paper 
have  been  resorted  to  ;  direct  and  indirect  taxation  have  reached 
their  highest  possible  point,  and  yet  the  danger  of  having  to  wind 
up  the  next  Budget  with  a  deficit  is  staring  M.  Witte  in  the  face." 

Russia  is  in  the  cruel  position  of  having  to  ship  away  the 
food  products  of  her  impoverished  peasantry  at  home,  in 
order  to  meet  her  heavy  commitments  abroad,  and  pay 
the  inexorable  interest  of  her  extravagant  loans  in  foreign 
lands  ;  yet  the  forward  party,  who  have  the  ear  of  the 
Czar,  are  constantly  pushing  her  into  fresh  ventures  and 
fresh  extravagances  in  pursuit  of  fresh  annexations.     She 

1  As  it  then  appeared  to  be,  and  even  yet  it  is  only  being 
regained  by  great  care  and  unremitting  watchfulness. — a.  e.  n.  l. 


"  EX   ORIENTE    LUX  !  "  73 

reminds  one  of  a  bankrupt,  before  his  exposure,  plunging 
into  reckless  speculation,  hoping,  while  his  credit  lasts, 
that  a  fortunate  coup  may  bring  him  round  ;  if  not,  the 
inevitable  deluge.  In  such  circumstances,  one  would 
think  that  Russia  would  be  glad  to  arrest  her  ambition 
and  come  to  an  amicable  arrangement  with  the  Western 
Powers  in  regard  to  the  position  of  China,  ceasing  to  block 
the  way  in  Peking  when  Germany  or  England  attempts 
to  put  through  fresh  industrial  enterprises.  Russia  her- 
self can  do  nothing  without  borrowed  money  :  foreign 
capital  is  her  last  resource,  and  "  M.  Witte  does  his  best 
to  lure  it  to  Russia  with  the  prospect  of  mulcting  it  in  the 
near  future." 

As  regards  America,  her  interests  in  China,  so  far,  have 
not  suffered.  Her  trade  still  flourishes.  The  door  for  her 
imports  into  Manchuria  and  Shantung  has  not  yet  been 
shut,  though  there  is  no  guarantee  that  it  will  not  be  closed 
in  the  near  future.  France  has  already  closed  the  door  in 
the  South,  in  Tongking,  and  imposes  a  differential  transit 
tax  of  ten  per  cent,  on  American  goods  crossing  her  border 
on  their  way  from  the  free  port  and  depot  of  Hongkong  to 
the  free  Chinese  province  of  Yunnan.  Americans  have 
secured  a  concession  for  one  of  the  best  trunk  lines  of 
railway  in  China — that  from  Canton,  in  the  South,  to 
Hankow,  in  the  heart  of  the  Yangtse  Valley,  ^  and  it  is  thus 
doubly  in  the  interest  of  America  to  join  in  keeping  the 
Yangtse  Valley  open,  together  with  such  remainder 
of  the  eighteen  great  provinces  of  China  proper,  and 
her  outlying  dependencies,  as  still  remains  free.  As 
for  Mr.  Holmstrem's  tirades  against  England,  they 
remind  us  of  nothing  so  much  as  of  the  old  Italian 
proverb,  "  The  offender  never  pardons." 

*  Since  parted  with.  The  United  States  claim  concessions 
and  then  can  find  no  capitalists  to  work  them,  their  market  at 
home  being  so  much  more  profitable. — a.  e.  n.  l. 


TWO    CITIES:    LONDON   AND   PEKING 

Two  cities  in  the  modern  world  claim  pre-eminence  as 
the  capitals  of  the  two  most  populous  empires  in  existence 
— Britain  and  China,  Both  claim  further  attention  as  the 
respective  centres  of  two  of  the  leading  types  of  human 
civilisation,  as  well  as  of  the  great  political  interests  that 
have  in  them  their  foci.  London,  the  metropolis  of  the 
English-speaking  world  in  the  extreme  West,  with  Peking, 
the  metropolis  and  Mecca  of  the  Indo-Chinese  nations  in 
the  Far  East :  one  at  either  extremity  of  the  great 
Eurasian  continent,  a  counterpoise,  as  it  were,  to  each 
other,  they  stand  forth  like  sentinels  at  the  two  ends  of 
the  ancient  world.  These  two  beacons  of  light  and 
learning,  situated  on  the  margin  of  the  once  impenetrable 
bounds  of  the  watery  setting  in  the  midst  of  which 
terra  firma  stood  forth,  now  both  face  that  New  World 
of  the  existence  of  which  their  respective  founders  were 
naturally  ignorant,  but  which  bids  fair  in  the  not  far 
distant  future  to  reshift  the  centre  of  gravity  to  a  new 
continent.  In  the  meantime  a  comparison  of  the  points 
of  analogy  and  of  antithesis  which  these  two  great  metro- 
poles  offer  to  the  unprejudiced  observer,  visiting  them  as 
they  now  exist  at  this  latter  end  of  the  Nineteenth  Century, 
offers  much  matter  for  reflection,  from  which  I  purpose 
to  select  a  few  of  the  more  salient  points. 

All  British  interests  centre  in  London,  for  as  long  as 
the  wide  Empire  which  acknowledges  the  sway  of  the 
King  of  England  holds  together,  so  long  will  the  title- 
deeds  of  its  vast  possessions  continue  to  be  held  in  the 
British  Metropolis.     The  bonds  that  unite  its  scattered 

74 


TWO    CITIES:    LONDON    AND    PEKING      75 

parts  may  be  drawn  yet  tighter,  as  the  patriotic  friends  of 
"  National  Unity  "  so  ardently  desire,  or  they  might 
conceivably  be  so  far  slackened  as  to  admit  of  absolute 
Colonial  independence  ;  but  short  of  annexation  to  another 
Power,  its  varied  offshoots  and  dependencies  will  still 
continue  to  regard  London  as  the  common  focus  of  their 
civilisation,  as  much  as  it  must  for  ever  indisputably 
rank  as  the  fountain  source  of  their  common  history. 
So  the  numerous  heterogeneous  provinces  of  China  proper 
and  the  outlying  regions  over  which  the  Emperor  of  China 
still  holds  sway,  as  well  as  those  which  no  longer  pay 
their  tribute,  although  still  compelled  to  acknowledge 
their  primary  obligation  to  China  for  the  elements  of  their 
written  languages,  their  arts,  their  ethics,  and  their  civiUsa- 
tion  generally — all  still  look  up  to  Peking  as  their  common 
alma  matey,  while  their  learned  men  regard  a  pilgrimage 
thither  as  the  crowning  step  in  their  educational  career. 
The  decrees  of  the  Chinese  Emperor,  if  no  longer  regarded 
as  actually  divine  even  by  his  own  immediate  subjects, 
are  still  respected  as  the  oracular  dicta  of  an  infallible  pope. 

The  Emperor  of  China,  as  God's  Viceregent  on  earth, 
has  alone  the  right  to  offer  sacrifice  to  Heaven  directly. 
His  subjects  can  only  approach  Heaven  through  him 
as  intermediary,  and  a  peacock's  feather  or  silk  riding 
jacket  bestowed  by  him,  or,  still  better,  a  tablet  with 
his  autograph,  is  the  highest  honour  this  world  can  offer. 

The  members  of  the  vast  bureaucracy  that  rules  the 
lives  and  fortunes  of  400,000,000  of  people  must,  one  and 
all,  proceed  to  Peking  to  do  homage  on  promotion,  while 
the  surrounding  semi-independent  nations  like  Corea, 
Anam,  Siam,  Nepaul,  and  Burmah  have  all  been 
accustomed  to  send  their  representatives  at  regular 
intervals  to  lay  tribute  at  the  feet  of  the  "  Son  of 
Heaven."  Even  Britain,  her  once  upstart  and  proud 
antagonist,  has,  by  her  latest  treaty  with  poor  despised 
Peking,  now  become  enrolled  in  the  register  of  tribute- 
bearing  worshippers  at  the  Dragon  Throne,  for  has  she 
not  agreed  that  the  annexation  of  Burmah  to  her  Indian 


76  GLEANINGS   FROM   CHINA 

Empire  shall  not  interfere  with  the  old  custom  of  decennial 
tribute  ?  I  see  no  harm  in  thus  flattering  the  harmless 
pride  of  so  venerable  an  Empire — now,  alas  !  in  its 
dotage. 

Peking,  although  its  existence  as  the  capital  of  the 
small  State  of  "  Yen  "  dates  from  the  fifth  century  B.C., 
was  not  raised  to  the  rank  of  metropolis  of  the  Chinese 
Empire  until  after  the  conquest  of  the  "  Liao  "  or  Kitan 
Tartars,  which  was  effected  by  the  "  Kin  "  Tartars  or 
"Golden  Horde,"  who,  in  a.d.  1151,  made  Peking  their 
seat  of  government  under  the  title  of  Cheng-tu  or  "  Central 
Stronghold.'"  The  word  "  King,"  meaning  Capital,  was 
then  first  applied  to  the  old  city  of  the  Yen,  its  alternative 
name  under  the  Kin  Tartars  being  "  Yen-king,"  or  capital 
city  of  Yen.  By  the  Mongol  conquest,  a.d.  1215,  it  was 
again  degraded  into  a  provincial  city,  Genghis-Khan 
holding  his  Court  of  nomad  warriors  at  Kara-koram.  But 
in  A.D.  1264  Peking  was  once  more  restored  to  Imperial 
rank  by  his  grandson  Kublai-khan,  Marco  Polo's  great 
patron,  under  whom  it  was  known  as  Ta-Tu,  or  great 
stronghold,  in  Chinese,  and  as  "  Khanbaligh,"  or  City  of 
the  Khan,  in  Mongolian,  euphonised  by  old  Marco  into 
the  world-renowned  "  Cambaluc  "  : — 

"  In  Xanadu  did  Kubla  Khan 

A  stately  pleasure  dome  decree  ; 
Where  Alph,  the  sacred  river,  ran 
Through  caverns  measureless  to  man, 

Down  to  a  sunless  sea. 

"  So  twice  five  miles  of  fertile  ground 
With  walls  and  towers  were  girdled  round  : 
And  there  were  gardens  bright  with  sinuous  rills, 

Where  blossomed  many  an  incense-burning  tree  ; 
And  here  were  forests,  ancient  as  the  hills. 

Enfolding  sunny  spots  of  greenery." 

The  name  "  Pe-King,"  literally  "  Northern  Capital," 
was  unknown  until  a.d.  1409,  when  the  third  Emperor 
of  the  Ming  dynasty,  known  generally  as  Yung-Lo, 
transferred  his  seat  of  government  hither  from  "  Nan- 


TWO    CITIES:    LONDON    AND    PEKING      77 

King,"  the  "  Southern  Capital,"  with  the,  as  subsequent 
events  proved,  fruitless  object  of  being  in  a  better  position 
to  defend  his  dynasty  from  its  northern  foes.  So  much 
for  the  history  of  this  venerable  capital.  It  goes  to  show- 
that  London  has  nothing  to  yield  on  the  score  of  antiquity 
to  its  Eastern  rival. 

London  appears  to  have  had  its  origin  in  prehistoric 
times  in  a  fort,  built  at  the  first  practicable  crossing  of 
the  Thames  open  to  an  invader  from  the  adjoining  con- 
tinent making  his  way  northwards,  and  from  that  small 
beginning  to  have  grown  rather  than  to  have  been  made 
the  emporium  of  learning,  arts,  and  commerce,  in  which 
its  early  fortress  origin  would  have  become  entirely  obliter- 
ated but  for  the  happy  survival  of  the  Tower  of  London. 

Peking  also  was  originally  a  fortress,  and  a  fortress — of 
mediaeval  type  be  it  well  understood — it  still  remains. 
Built  as  a  watch-tower  over  against  the  unruly  tribes  of 
the  North,  the  quarter  whence  all  Chinese  invasions  have 
come,  its  Tartar  conquerors  expanded  it  into  their  Court 
and  camp,  and  this  stamp  of  its  origin  pervades  the  whole 
of  the  vast  enclosure  to  the  present  day.  Bearing  a  strik- 
ing resemblance  to  the  symmetrical  encampment  which 
the  old  Roman  discipline  required  to  be  erected  at  every 
halt  of  their  armies,  this  city  has  its  earthen  rampart, 
brickfaced  and  with  crenulated  top,  set  four-square  about 
it ;  a  wide  approach  from  the  southern  tower-capped 
gateway  leading  to  the  commander-in-chief's  quarters — 
now  the  Imperial  palace — with  the  pavihons  of  his  staff 
to  the  right  and  to  the  left — now  the  palaces  of  the 
princes  of  the  blood — with  the  bulk  of  the  army  arranged 
round  about  in  their  orderly  rows  of  tents  set  out  along 
wide  alley-ways  giving  ample  room  for  rapid  manoeuvring. 

The  wide,  low,  curved-roofed  buildings  of  to-day  are  but 
the  crystalhsed  tents  of  yesterday.  This  is  the  modem 
Manchu  city,  which  surrounds  on  all  four  sides  the  Im- 
perial City,  an  enclosure  within  an  enclosure,  the  former 
a  parallelogram  three  and  a  half  miles  by  four,  an  area  of 
fourteen  square  miles,  having  within  it  a  second  walled 


78  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

parallelogram,  the  "  Forbidden  City,"  about  one  mile 
square.  In  this  latter  lives  the  Emperor  ;  immediately 
outside  and  around  him  his  faithful  Manchu  bodyguard, 
who  alone  are  supposed  to  inhabit  the  Manchu  city. 
This  bodyguard  is  known  as  the  "  Eight  Banners,"  who 
form  the  twenty-four  territorial  divisions  of  the  garrison. 
Outside,  again,  are  encamped  the  sutlers — the  Chinese — 
come  to  buy  and  sell  to  the  Army  and  the  Court.  Their 
quarters  cover  a  somewhat  smaller  area  (five  miles  by 
two),  and  are  also  surrounded  by  a  brick-faced  earthen 
rampart  of  the  same  type,  though  lower  than  that  of  the 
Manchu  citadel  adjoining.  Peking  is  laid  out  on  a  grand 
plan,  is  intersected  by  noble  avenues  forty  and  fifty  yards 
in  width,  and  its  temples  and  palaces,  though  decayed  and 
dilapidated  like  everything  in  the  China  of  to-day,  stand 
with  imposing  grandeur  in  wide  park-like  enclosures,  a 
marvellous  contrast  to  the  narrow,  crooked  thoroughfares 
of  London,  and  the  shabby  framing,  generally  limited 
depth  of,  and  cramped  approaches  to  her  most  ambitious 
buildings. 

If  the  approach  to  the  port  of  London  (and  the  gate  by 
which  no  few  of  her  visitors  from  the  Continent  enter 
her  renowned  precincts)  is  on  the  murky  surface  of  the 
open  sewer  into  which  modern  science  has  succeeded  in 
converting  the  once  gracious  Thames,  the  approach  to 
the  barbaric  splendour  of  the  Chinese  metropolis  is  little 
less  disheartening,  but  in  another  sense.  Here,  too,  we 
have  a  magnificent  approach  in  the  shape  of  a  grand 
stone  causeway,  which  at  the  time  of  its  construction  by 
the  "  Mings,"  nearly  five  hundred  years  ago,  was  probably 
the  greatest  work  of  its  kind  then  in  existence.  It  extends 
from  the  eastern  gate  of  the  capital  down  to  Tungchow, 
its  port,  a  provincial  walled  city  built  at  the  head  of  navi- 
gation of  the  Peiho  river.  It  is  a  paved  roadway  formed 
of  enormous  stone  blocks  quarried  from  the  western 
mountains,  laid  on  a  causeway  of  earth  raised  some  four 
feet  above  the  surrounding  plain.  The  blocks  average 
eight  by  three  feet  surface  by  two  in  thickness.     Not 


TWO    CITIES:    LONDON    AND    PEKING      79 

having  been  touched  apparently  since  the  day  that  the 
great  Ming  Emperor  had  them  orderly  placed  there,  time 
has  undermined  their  bed  ;  they  lie  tilted  at  every  con- 
ceivable angle,  and  they  now  form  a  barricade  rather 
than  a  road  of  approach.  Yet — and  it  is  hardly  to  be 
expected  that  any  one  who  has  not  been  there  and  seen 
it  with  his  own  eyes  will  believe  the  statement — over  this 
"  obstacle  chase  "  come  and  go  daily  four-fifths  of  the 
whole  trade  and  travel  of  the  metropolis  of  this  huge 
empire  with  the  outer  world.  ^  The  traffic  on  this  road 
is  enormous  :  carts  (springless,  of  course) — some  with 
passengers  and  some  with  goods — camels,  laden  donkeys, 
mules  and  pack-horses,  sedan  chairs  and  wheelbarrows 
follow  in  endless  procession  from  dawn  to  dark.  To  the 
well-mounted  equestrian  able  to  enjoy  it  at  his  ease  from 
the  swampy  but  safer  vantage  of  the  country  alongside, 
the  sight  is  a  most  inspiriting  one  ;  but  that  officials 
from  every  comer  of  the  Empire,  who  must  come  and  go 
by  this  road  upon  their  periodical  visits  to  the  capital  to 
do  homage  on  promotion,  should  have  accepted  it  so  long 
apparently  as  an  ordinance  of  nature,  is  truly  astonishing. 
It  would  be  thought  that  some  among  them  who  have 
arrived  at  high  positions,  such  as  Viceroys  and  Privy 
Councillors,  would  have  reformed  this  abuse  ;  but  appar- 
ently they  have  no  more  control  over  it  than  have  our  own 
mandarins,  who  stroll  on  the  river  terrace  at  Westminster, 
over  the  pollution  of  the  Thames.  The  serious  and  ob- 
vious temporary  disadvantages  to  be  encountered  in 
carrying  out  the  much-needed  reformation  outweigh  in 
their  minds  the  permanent  good  to  be  reaped  in  the  future. 
In  either  case,  the  possible  future  gain  appears  too  remote 
for  it  to  act  as  an  incentive  to  prompt  and  immediate 
action.  And  so,  such  palliative  measures  as  an  alternative 
road  in  the  worst  parts  where  land  is  obtainable  along- 
side, or  the  filling  up  with  rubbish  of  some  of  the 
most  dangerous  holes  in  the  roadway,  sum  up  the  repairs 

^  Since  this  was  written  a  railway  has  been  made,  but  the  road 
Still  remains  the  same. — ^a.  e.  n.  l. 


8o  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

of  centuries.  To  the  Chinese,  and  ahke  to  the  conserva- 
tive-minded Londoner,  radical  treatment  seems  fatefully 
distasteful. 

Thus,  as  roadmakers,  we  are  justified  in  regarding  the 
Chinese  with  well-merited  contempt ;  but  how  does  a 
comparison  of  their  pellucid  waterways  hold  with  regard 
to  our  own  polluted  streams  ?  We  are  content  simply  to  put 
out  of  sight  the  offensive  accumulation  of  refuse  matter ; 
but  in  China,  owing  to  the  imperative  demand  for  ferti- 
lisers in  an  over-populous  land,  and  to  the  absence  of 
guano  islands  on  its  coasts,  the  people  have  solved  in 
principle  one  of  the  most  difficult  questions  attending 
large  agglomerations  of  human  beings,  if  not  quite  suc- 
cessfully, at  least  in  a  manner  more  logical  than  that  of 
casting  it  into  the  sea.  In  the  outskirts  of  these  northern 
cities  advantage  is  taken  of  the  extreme  dryness  of  the 
air  and  the  great  heat  of  the  summer  sun,  to  manufacture 
the  solid  dejecta  into  a  valuable  portable  fertiliser  by 
mixing  it  with  earth,  when  it  is  made  up  into  small  fiat 
discs  perfectly  inodorous  and  in  appearance  not  unlike 
oatmeal  cakes  ;  these  are  neatly  packed  in  sacks  suitable 
for  land  transport,  and  sold  to  farmers  for  about  los. 
a  cwt.  In  the  south,  where  the  summer  air  is  too  moist 
for  this  process,  but  where  cheaper  water  carriage  is 
available  in  almost  every  direction,  the  soil  is  removed 
bodily  on  to  the  land  that  needs  it  in  its  natural  condi- 
tion, and  in  this  way  the  invaluable  nitrates  which  the 
crops  extract  are  returned  direct  to  the  soil.  In  and 
around  Peking,  however,  the  demand  does  not  equal  the 
supply,  and  as  the  above-described  process  is  carried  out  as 
a  private  enterprise  and  from  no  sanitary  motives,  a  large 
portion  of  the  refuse  is  simply  thrown  upon  the  streets, 
where  nature  quickly  disinfects  it  by  a  covering  of  "  dry 
earth  "  from  the  dusty  plains  that  surround  the  city. 
Thus,  the  Chinese  have  plainly  shown  us  how  this 
matter  can  be  treated,  but,  as  the  produce  cannot 
bear  the  expense  of  long  land  transport,  sufficient  only  for 
the  immediate  neighbourhood  is  actually  produced.     In 


TWO    CITIES:    LONDON    AND    PEKING      8i 

countries  permeated  by  the  iron  road  the  market  should 
be  a  larger  one. 

In  Peking  the  vast  residuum  is  unfortunately  dealt 
with  in  a  manner  most  offensive  to  the  foreign  residents, 
but  habit  renders  the  natives  almost  unconscious  of 
the  imperfections  attending  this  time-honoured  method 
of  ridding  themselves  of  the  chief  encumbrance  of 
city  life  all  the  world  over.  Indeed,  a  stranger  visiting 
Peking  for  the  first  time,  especially  if  the  weather 
happen  to  be  wet,  which  is  fortunately  not  often,  is 
so  appalled  and  disgusted  with  the  state  of  the  streets 
that  he  wonders  how  it  is  possible  for  any  mortal,  even 
Chinese,  to  continue  alive  there ;  much  as  one  entering 
London  for  the  first  time  when  a  black  November  fog  was 
at  its  height,  and  especially  a  foreigner  who  had  never  be- 
fore heard  of  the  phenomenon,  would  marvel  at  the  fact  of 
existence,  not  to  say  the  pursuit  of  business  and  pleasure, 
being  possible  under  such  strange  conditions.  In  both 
capitals  "  custom  "  seems  to  have  rendered  supportable 
by  the  natives  conditions  which  h  priori  philosophers 
would  infallibly  have  pronounced  impossible.  And  that 
the  two  greatest  capitals  of  the  Old  World  should  each 
accept  such  abnormal  conditions  so  submissively,  and 
apparently  thrive  under  them,  is  but  another  of  the 
many  evidences  we  possess  of  the  natural  adaptability 
of  the  human  race  to  environments  the  most  unnatural. 
Peking  did  indeed  once  possess  a  magnificent  system  of 
underground  drainage,  but  now  the  stone  ruins  of  the 
culverts  that  remain  are  nothing  but  traps  for  the  unwary, 
in  which  men  and  horses  are  now  and  again  fatally  lost. 

If  a  Pekingese  is  remonstrated  with  on  the  atrocious 
system,  or  rather  absence  of  system  of  drainage,  he  replies  : 
"  It  is  bad,  but  it  can't  be  helped."  And  indeed  it  is 
not  easy  at  once  to  suggest  a  remedy  that  shall  meet 
the  peculiar  conditions  of  the  place.  The  old  plan  pre- 
scribed by  Moses  to  the  Jews  worked  no  doubt  admirably 
in  a  camp  probably  under  a  mile  square,  but  in  a  city 
covering  fifty  times  that  area,  it  is  evidently  impracticable. 


82  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Our  sanitary  engineers,  if  given  full  play,  are  capable  of 
devising  a  scheme  that  should  meet  all  the  conditions 
peculiar  to  the  place,  scarcity  of  funds  being  not  one  of 
the  least.  Taking  advantage  of  its  dry  air  and  wealth  of 
open  spaces,  desiccation  on  a  large  scale  would  probably  be 
suggested,  and  were  such  a  desecration  of  the  sacred  city 
permissible,  tramways  would  remove  the  produce  to  the 
outskirts  cheaply  and  effectively.  Apropos  of  carriage 
transport,  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  no  city  in  Asia 
offers  a  more  promising  field  for  the  cheap  and  popular 
tram — horse  or  electric — than  Peking  with  its  wide, 
straight  avenues,  busy  population,  and  present  absence 
of  all  easy  means  of  locomotion.  High  officials  ride  in 
sedan  chairs  with  four  bearers,  others  ride  on  ponies  and 
asses,  and  the  greater  number  are  content  to  be  jolted 
in  the  springless  carts  that  toil  in  crowds  through  the 
uneven  streets  ;  for  the  roadways  are  nothing  but  the 
natural  soil  dug  out  from  the  sides  and  heaped  up  in  the 
centre  with  the  added  garbage.  This  central  causeway, 
with  its  surface  of  hill  and  dale,  is  br  anded  by  two  lines 
of  stagnant  foul-smelling  swamp  which  intervenes  between 
it  and  the  narrow  side  walks  that  run  under  the  eaves 
of  the  gaudily  decorated  shops  or  alongside  the  endless 
walks  of  the  residential  parks  and  temple  grounds  which 
occupy  so  much  of  the  city's  space.  ^  The  poorer  masses 
ply  their  way  along  on  foot  as  best  they  can,  and  he  is  a 
man  of  daring  who  ventures  to  move  abroad  when  darkness 
has  once  set  in.  Indeed  after  sunset  the  streets  of  the 
Eastern  metropolis  are  almost  entirely  deserted. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  stranger  ask  a  Londoner  why 
he  puts  up  with  his  fogs  which  recur  every  winter  with 
painful  regularity  and,  as  the  city  goes  on  growing,  with 
steadily  increasing  virulence,  he  will  doubtless  reply, 
*'  The  discomfort  is  unavoidable.  Our  system  of  open 
coal  fires  is  too  deep-rooted  to  be  abandoned,  besides  being 

*  Some  of  the  principal  roads  have  been  made  possible  even  for 
carriages,  but  straying  off  these  one  still  finds  the  conditions  as 
here  described. — a.  e.  n.  l. 


TWO    CITIES:    LONDON    AND    PEKING      83 

the  healthiest  mode  of  house-warming  yet  devised." 
If  you  point  to  the  enormous  monetary  loss  involved  in 
the  destruction  of  clothing  and  art  materials  by  the  sul- 
phurous fumes  and  the  slimy  black  deposit  of  the  soot- 
laden  fog,  he  may  give  you  the  shortsighted  answer  that 
it  is  good  for  trade.  If  you  ask  him  whether  it  is  good 
for  trade  that  in  the  first  shipping  port  and  chief  depot  of 
the  world's  commerce  business  should  be  suspended,  often 
for  a  week  at  a  time,  while  an  impenetrable  pall  hangs 
over  her  wharves  and  warehouses,  he  will  reply  that  the 
volume  of  trade  probably  remains  the  same,  and  that  it 
is  only  a  temporary  suspension  which  is  followed  by  in- 
creased activity  when  work  is  resumed. 

Nor  is  an  appeal  to  the  aesthetic  side  of  much  more  avail. 
The  aesthetic  feelings  are  not  deeply  rooted  in  the  English 
character,  and  even  in  one  in  whom  they  are,  you  will  find 
an  apologist  who  will  declare  that  the  grime  on  our 
buildings  does  but  complete  the  chiaroscuro  which  forms 
the  charm  of  London  prospects  and  adds  that  cachet  of 
originality  which  makes  London  unique  in  the  impression 
it  creates  on  the  sympathetic  visitor.  If,  then,  you  ask 
him  whether  it  is  good  that  for  nearly  half  the  year  the 
wealthy  leisured  classes  should  be  driven  away  to  spend 
their  incomes  (often  earned  in  London)  in  foreign  lands,  he 
will  reply  that  the  fog  is  a  necessary  accompaniment  of 
the  climate,  and  that  those  who  can  will  escape  it  anyway 
by  removing  to  the  Riviera  and  the  sunny  South.  Further 
"  custom  "  reconciles  the  native  to  all  the  discomforts  of 
his  surroundings,  and  leads  him  to  submit  to  the  inevitable 
with  scarcely  a  murmur. 

Thus  each  capital  has  its  own  amenities,  which,  forcibly 
though  they  strike  a  stranger,  exist  almost  unnoticed  by 
the  native.  A  Londoner  visiting  Peking  marvels  at  the 
barbarity  still  rampant  in  the  heart  of  the  polished 
civilisation  of  China,  while  a  Pekingese  in  London  {teste 
the  reply  once  made  to  me  by  a  Chinese  Ambassador 
in  Portland  Place,  on  my  inquiring  how  he  liked  the 
British    metropolis),    sums    up    his  impressions   in    the 


84  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

words,  "  Too  dirty."  To  a  Londoner  who  has  lived  in 
Peking  it  seems  merely  another  instance  of  Chinese 
self-conceit  when  a  Pekingese  dares  to  expatiate  on  the 
dirt  of  London,  as  is  to  a  Chinaman  our  own  inexpUcable 
pride  in  our  agglomeration  of  dingy,  cramped,  mean- 
looking,  ill-arranged,  courtyard-lacking  houses,  which 
constitute  the  metropolis  of  the  British  Empire. 

This  special  amenity  of  the  Chinese  capital  which  we 
have  just  described,  probably  has  its  origin  in  the  habits 
of  the  camp  which  practically  constituted  the  Peking  of 
the  Mongol  conquest — habits  which  have  survived  its 
expansion  into  a  magnificent  city  of  a  million  inhabitants  ; 
curiously  enough,  it  was  about  the  same  date  that  the 
''  smoke  nuisance  "  began  to  make  itself  felt  in  London. 
Up  to  the  time  of  our  Edward  II.  wood  and  charcoal 
appear  to  have  constituted  the  common  fuel,  but  already 
in  his  reign  sea  coal  was  coming  into  use,  for  we  find,  in 
A.D.  1316,  Parliament  presenting  a  petition  against  coal 
from  Newcastle,  which  resulted  in  the  total  prohibition  of 
its  use.  A  fine  was  imposed  for  the  first  offence,  and 
a  second  offence  was  punished  by  the  uprooting  and 
destruction  of  the  offending  chimney.  From  these  small 
beginnings  we  have  gone  on  until  now  the  great  smoke- 
producing  factory  of  London  uses  up  annually  five 
million  tons  of  our  precious  store  of  black  diamonds,  and 
destroys  at  the  lowest  estimate  five  million  pounds  a  year 
of  property,  directly  ruined  by  its  emanations.  A 
reckless  waste  and  a  cruel  destruction  !  Yet  the  evil  has 
grown  and  grown  and  been  submitted  to  for  seven 
hundred  years,  not  entirely  without  a  murmur  but  abso- 
lutely without  any  serious  effort  to  amend  it.  And  is 
there  really  no  remedy  forthcoming  ? 

Fogs  there  will  always  be  along  the  Thames  valley, 
but,  apart  from  the  fact  that  they  are  believed  to  be 
attracted  by,  and  their  duration  prolonged  by,  the  cloud 
of  sooty  particles  always  in  suspension  in  the  air  of  our 
great  cities,  such  white  mists  are  innocuous,  and  in  a 
state   of    nature   seldom    prevail     for     days     together. 


TWO    CITIES:    LONDON    AND    PEKING      85 

Eliminate  the  "  blacks  "  from  the  London  fogs  and  they 
will  be  shorn  of  all  their  terror.  So  with  the  sewage  : 
we  shall  always  have  it  with  us  ;  but  face  the  fact 
squarely  and  openly,  and  admit  the  necessity  of  dealing 
with  it  in  the  first  instance  each  in  our  own  houses,  and 
means  for  its  subsequent  removal  and  disposal  will  in 
due  time  be  found.  Prohibit  the  pollution  of  the  Peking 
streets,  and  the  inhabitants  will  soon  discover  a  better 
method,  as  have  the  large  Chinese  population  that 
dwells  within  the  bounds  of  the  "  Model  Settlement  "  of 
Shanghai. 

This  is  not  the  place,  even  had  we  the  space  at  our 
disposal,  to  discuss  methods  ;  we  have  not  even  touched 
upon  the  health  question,  which  some  will  think  the  most 
important  of  all.  A  good  suggestion  in  regard  to  the 
smoke  nuisance  was,  however,  made  by  a  distinguished 
London  physician,  the  reader  of  a  paper  at  the  Annual 
Meeting  of  the  Social  Science  Congress  at  Edinburgh, 
in  1875,  to  the  effect  that,  failing  any  general  agreement 
as  to  the  best  means  of  abating  it,  a  qualified  prohibi- 
tion should  be  enacted  by  law.  He  proposed  that,  after 
due  notice  given,  houses  of  an  annual  rental  of  one 
thousand  pounds  and  upwards  should  be  absolutely 
forbidden  to  disgorge  their  smoke  upon  the  community  : 
then  after  another  term,  the  prohibition  was  to  descend 
to  houses  of  nine  hundred  pounds,  and  so  gradually 
downwards.  Two  points  were  emphasised :  one,  that  the 
prohibition  should  be  absolute ;  the  other,  that  the 
choice  of  means  should  be  left  to  the  individual  house- 
owners.  The  writer's  view  was  that,  given  the 
necessity,  human  ingenuity  would  be  quickly  stimulated 
to  discover  the  means  ;  and  that  if  the  problem  were  left  to 
an  unlimited  number  of  workers,  the  best  method  was 
certain  to  emerge.  Surely  such  purely  mechanical 
problems  are  not  of  those  which  "  it  passeth  the  wit  of 
man  "  to  solve. 

But  to  return  to  our  comparison  of  the  two  cities.  With 
all  their  drawbacks,  and  quite  apart  from  their  historical 


86  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

renown,  they  both  possess  a  fascination  which  grows 
upon  nearer  acquaintance,  and  which  is  in  no  slight 
measure  due  to  their  admirable  situation.  London  stands 
athwart  a  river  equally  valuable  for  pleasure  as  for 
business,  and  in  the  centre  of  a  basin,  formed  by  gentle 
ranges  of  hills  which  surround  it  with  picturesque  environs 
and  present  to  its  citizens  an  inexhaustible  field  for  enjoy- 
ing the  charms  that  nature  offers.  The  day  is  unfortun- 
ately past  when  in  every  street  could  be  seen  a  tree,  but 
the  soil  and  climate  are  such  that  wherever  space  for 
vegetation  has  been  left  the  green  leaves  flourish,  even 
despite  the  smoke.  Peking  is  built  at  the  foot  of  a  range 
of  mountains  which  shelter  it  on  the  north  and  west  from 
the  cold  northern  blasts,  while  the  city  lies  open  to  the 
cooling  breezes  that  come  from  the  sea  on  the  south  and 
east.  These  "  Hsi  Shan  " — western  mountains  as  they 
are  called — form  an  admirable  curtain  bounding  the 
distant  view,  equally  attractive  whether  seen  in  their 
summer  garb  of  green  or  in  their  winter  coat  of  snow. 
Upon  them  stand  many  old-world  Buddhist  temples, 
which  form  charming  retreats  from  the  heated  city,  and 
beyond  these  again  the  lofty  grass-covered  undulations 
of  the  wide  Mongolian  plateau.  It  is  to  the  neighbourhood 
of  these  high  grassy  plains  that  is  due  the  exhilarating 
nature  of  the  Peking  air  in  the  long  fine  autumn  season, 
when  its  breath  is  like  champagne  to  the  weary  visitor 
from  the  humid  south.  But  the  city  itself  is  a  beautiful 
spectacle  when  viewed  from  a  pagoda,  or,  better  still,  as 
one  walks  along  the  broad  road  that  tops  its  colossal 
walls.  The  eye  roams  over  a  forest  of  foliage  interspersed 
with  the  picturesque  roofs  of  burnished  tiles  with  their 
curved  eaves  and  richly-coloured  porcelain  pinnacles, 
which  peep  out  like  gipsy  tents  in  a  woodland  glade. 
Looking  down  upon  this  tranquil  scene,  with  here  and 
there  a  broad  avenue  visible,  between  which  the  few 
people  scarcely  discernible  move  at  their  leisure,  unlike 
the  hurrying  throngs  of  London,  and  gazing  on  these  sym- 
metrical, perfectly  balanced  house-tops,  one  appreciates 


TWO    CITIES:    LONDON    AND    PEKING      87 

indeed  the  contrast  to  the  dispiriting  chaos  of  roofs  and 

chimney-pots  which  form  the  prospect  from  an  upper 

story   in    London  !     When  one  remembers  that  amidst 

these  tranquil  groves  hve  the  rulers  of  a  mighty  empire, 

one  is  irresistibly  reminded  of  the  gods  in  Tennyson's 

Lotus  Eaters,  who 

"  Careless  of  mankind 
....  lie  beside  their  nectar,  and  the  bolts  are  hurled 
Far  below  them  in  the  valleys,  and  the  clouds  are  lightly 

curled 
Round   their  golden   houses,   girdled   with   the  gleaming 
world  "  ; 

and  can  imagine  how  the  Ministers  of  the  thirteen  outside 
nations  who  are  accredited  to  the  Dragon  Throne  butt  their 
heads  vainly  against  such  impassive  tranquillity. 

As  a  well-known  Danish  litterateur  (Georg  Brandes)  has 
written  of  another  capital — that  of  a  still  wider  empire  : 
"  Everything  is  laid  out  on  a  broad  scale,  and  has  the 
stamp  of  repose,  whereas  in  London  everything  is  planned 
for  keen  and  immediate  enjoyment."  He  adds,  too,  in 
speaking  of  Moscow,  what  is  strikingly  true  of  Peking  : 
"  There  is  open  ground  enough,  but  hardly  any  place 
where  people  can  walk."  Did  the  Mongols,  who  also 
ruled  Russia  (a.d.  1220-1480)  while  they  held  their  Court 
in  Peking,  impart  to  its  people  their  wide  views  and 
grand  scale  of  construction  ?  If  we  are  asked  what  is 
the  leading  impression  that  the  Chinese  capital  makes 
upon  us,  we  should  say  pre-eminently — repose.  Repose 
is  the  effect  it  indisputably  produces,  notwithstanding  its 
busy  movement  and  its  streets  filled  with  life.  Through 
its  sixteen  gates  (nine  in  the  Tartar  and  seven  in  the 
Chinese  city)  from  dawn  to  sunset  flows  a  picturesque  and 
struggling  stream  of  camels,  carts,  barrows,  horses  and 
laden  porters,  sedan  chairs,  flocks  of  sheep,  droves  of 
swine  and  jolting  carriages.  Yet  those  entering  are  soon 
lost  in  the  immensity  of  the  city,  as  are  those  going  out 
in  the  wide  plain  beyond.  The  stream  struggles  and  boils 
in  the  congested  narrows,  but  appears  scarcely  in  motion 
when  once  it  has  passed  them. 


88  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

As  there  is  no  spot  on  the  world's  surface  so  truly  cos- 
mopolitan as  London,  so  there  are  few  spots  where  speci- 
mens of  so  many  different,  distant  nationalities  may  be 
seen  as  in  Peking.  Besides  the  native  Chinese,  Manchus, 
and  Mongols  in  their  varied  and  gay  costumes,  members 
of  Embassies  from  Lhassa,  Corea,  Turkestan,  and  Nepaul 
may  constantly  be  seen  in  the  capital,  their  costumes 
further  enchancing  the  brightness  of  the  kaleidoscopic 
Peking  streets.  The  hated  European  alone,  with  his 
shabby,  ungraceful  dress,  as  rigid  and  angular  as  his 
perversely  situated  heart,  ^  is  out  of  place,  and  no  hos- 
pitality is  shown  him.  Whether  the  story  of  how,  when 
he  dared  to  attempt  an  invasion  of  the  holy  city,  he  was 
ignominiously  driven  back  to  his  ships  after  a  few  days' 
stay  on  the  confines  of  the  citadel,  still  inflames  the 
imagination  of  the  Peking  gamin,  or  whether  the  contempt- 
uous distance  at  which  the  high  Chinese  officials  hold  our 
resident  representatives,  who  were  till  lately,  after  thirty 
years'  patient  pleading,  still  vainly  knocking  at  the 
outside  door  and  begging  the  favour  of  a  "  celestial 
glance,"  we  know  not  ;  but  certain  it  is  that  in  no  other 
spot  on  the  globe  that  I  have  visited  have  I  felt  myself 
such  an  object  of  contempt  as  in  Peking.  Sir  Harry 
Parkes  happily  characterised  this  bad  aspect  of  Peking  in 
the  words  :  "  Dirt  !  Dust  !  and  Disdain  !  "  Here  is  at 
least  one  point,  viz.,  in  its  treatment  of  strangers,  in 
which  London  bears  the  palm.  And  yet,  notwithstanding 
all,  we  cannot  but  be  fascinated  by  Peking  :  being  there 
we  are  set  back  a  thousand  years  in  history,  and  can  see 
with  our  eyes  living  pictures  of  the  Middle  Ages,  which 
here  have  been  handed  down  intact  for  our  special  edifica- 
tion. We  can  realise  what  was  the  aspect  of  the  cities 
of  Europe  with  their  gabled  houses  and  gaily  dressed 
inmates,  their  dirt  and  squalor,  their  towering  walls,  and 
their  peaceful  lives,  interrupted,  as  here,  at  long  intervals, 
by  fierce  convulsions.  Japan,  the  last  stronghold  of 
picturesque  sestheticism,  is  fast  slipping  from  our  grasp, 
*  A  Chinaman's  heart  is  in  the  centre,  they  say. 


TWO    CITIES:    LONDON    AND    PEKING      89 

and  rapidly  encasing  herself  in  the  Philistinism  of  modem 
comfort  and  ugliness.  China  yet  remains,  and  though  we 
rail  at  her  conservatism,  let  us  be  thankful  for  it. 

The  modern  visitor  to  Peking  sees  China  outwardly  at 
rest  after  a  cycle  (the  Chinese  cycle  is  sixty  years)  of 
wars  and  devastating  rebellions,  which  bring  to  the  minds 
of  those  of  us  who  have  seen  them  the  state  of  things  that 
existed  in  Germany  in  the  sixteenth  century,  when  the 
relentless  "  Thirty  Years'  War  "  was  pursuing  its  evil 
course.  The  recovery  of  the  inhabitants  who  there  sur- 
vived from  that  cruel  period  was  less  rapid  than  is  the 
recovery  now  going  on  in  those  provinces  of  China  which 
were  for  a  time  almost  entirely  depopulated  by  the 
Taiping  and  Mussulman  rebellions  of  1848  and  1873. 
Weakened  as  the  Government  of  China  has  been  during 
the  same  period,  by  an  unfortunate  succession  of  foreign 
wars,  its  resources  were  most  severely  strained  in  its 
slow  but  ultimately  successful  attempts  to  quell  these 
far  more  serious  internal  disorders.  The  fact  that  they 
have  at  last  emerged  from  such  a  wide  sea  of  troubles  is 
a  proof  of  the  toughness  and  vitality  inherent  in  the 
Chinese  race.  Now  that  their  rulers  are  once  more  in  the 
enjoyment  of  nominal  peace  on  all  their  frontiers,  and 
are  no  longer  under  the  necessity  of  devoting  every  energy 
to  the  sole  preservation  of  their  existence,  we  may  hope 
to  see  renewed  attention  paid  to  material  reforms  again. 

The  rulers  of  China,  who  have  for  so  long  been 

"  Looking  over  wasted  lands. 
Blight  and  famine,  plague  and  earthquake,  roaring  deeps  and  fiery 

sands, 
Clanging  fights  and  flaming  towns,  and  sinking  ships  and  praying 

hands," 

are  at  last  enjoying  a  respite.  We  do  not  doubt  that  they 
will  slowly  profit  by  it,  in  emulation  of  their  renowned 
progenitors,  to  "set  straight  the  crooked  and  build  up  the 
fallen,"  to  feed  her  millions  and  rebuild  her  altars,  infusing 
into  their  work,  let  us  hope.  Western  order  and  soUdity 
while  retaining  their  Eastern  grace  and  simplicity.     They 


90  GLEANINGS   FROM    CHINA 

have  at  last  made  a  beginning  with  railways — two  lines 
are  open  and  in  working  order  :  one  from  Shanghai  to 
Wusung,  a  distance  of  nine  miles,  to  be  continued  west  up 
the  Yangtse  valley  ;  one  from  Peking  to  Shan-hai-kwan, 
which  brings  the  metropolis  within  four  hours  of  the 
port  of  Tientsin,  as  against  the  old  journey  via  Tungchow 
of  six  days  in  boat  and  cart.  The  80  miles  of  land  road 
which  separate  Tientsin  from  Peking  have,  in  times  of 
emergency  and  using  relays  of  ponies,  been  covered  by 
Europeans  in  a  single  day.  Sir  Harry  Parkes,  with  his 
untiring  energy  when  Minister  at  Peking,  once  performed 
this  feat,  and  the  resulting  exhaustion  is  believed  to  have 
contributed  to  the  attack  of  typhoid  fever  to  which,  to 
the  great  grief  of  his  countrymen,  he  shortly  afterwards 
succumbed.  ^ 

As  one  gazed  on  Peking  a  few  years  ago  and  rejoiced  in 
the  freedom  from  war  that  after  so  many  troublous  years 
then  reigned  within  her  borders,  one  could  but  hope  that 
the  European  Powers,  then  rudely  knocking  at  her  doors, 
would  come  to  a  peaceful  agreement  amongst  themselves, 
virtually  to  respect  the  integrity  of  the  venerable  Empire. 
Spheres  of  influence  for  industrial  enterprises  may  still 
be  amicably  arranged,  but  it  seems  as  if  it  would  be  a 
crime  against  humanity  to  divide  up  this  most  interesting 
survival  from  antiquity  and  make  it  into  another  Poland, 
split  into  armed  camps,  making  enemies  of  separate  por- 
tions of  that  which  has  been  a  united  Empire  for  2,000 
years.  All  lovers  of  justice  and  freedom  must  rather 
hope  that  a  season  may  return  to  her  such  as  is  described 
by  one  of  her  famous  poets  of  the  brilliant  Sung  dynasty, 
the  philosopher  Sao  Yao-pu  (a.d.  1011-1077),  who, 
commenting  upon  the  happy  restoration  of  peace  that 
followed  upon  the  long   era   of  disturbance    ending  in 

1  Railways  from  Hankow  to  Peking ;  Tsingtao  to  Chi-nan-fu ; 
Shanghai  to  Hangchow,  and  also  to  Nanking,  as  also  the  purely- 
Chinese  line  from  Peking  into  Mongolia  and  the  French  line  from 
Hanoi  to  Yunnan-fu  in  the  extreme  South-West  have  since  been 
opened  and  the  network  promises  many  ramifications  as  well  as 
further  extensions. — a.  e.  n.  l. 


TWO    CITIES:    LONDON    AND    PEKING      91 

the  establishment  of  the  famous  dynasty  of  Han,  sang 
as  follows  (we  have  endeavoured,  while  giving  a  literal 
translation,  to  reproduce  the  rhythm  of  the  original)  : 

"  Midst  five  wild  dynasties  the  war  in  dire  confusion  reigned  ; 
When  lo  !     One  morn  the  clouds  dissolve ;    the  heavens  are 

regained, 
A  century  of  drought  gives  place  to  ripening  rains  and  dews. 
The  officers  through  countless  lands  no  more  their  Lord  refuse. 
The  streets  and  lanes  by  day  and  night  with  flags  and  lamps 

abound, 
Throughout  the  halls  and  towers  high  the  flute  and  zither  sound  ; 
The  whole  world  wrapped  in  peace  ;    the  days  pass  free  from 

sighs  or  care  ; 
Sweet  slumber  once  more  soothes  the  eyes  and  songbirds  fill  the 

air." 


THE   VALUE   OF   TIBET   TO    ENGLAND 

Notwithstanding  the  numerous  books  that  have  been 
pubHshed  on  Tibet,  from  the  time  of  Bogle  and  Manning, 
a  century  back,  down  to  the  more  recent  descriptions  of 
the  country  by  Rockhill,  Bower,  and  others,  the  public 
generally  have  but  a  hazy  idea  of  the  wide  Tibetan  region, 
or  of  its  great  value  to  us  and  to  all  Europeans  whose  lot 
is  cast  in  the  surrounding  lands,  dominated  by  the  huge 
table-land  that  towers  above  them.  Tibet  is  the  heart 
of  Asia,  rightly  called  the  roof  of  the  world  ;  it  forms 
the  nucleus  of  the  great  Asiatic  continent,  and  from  it 
may  be  said  to  depend  the  low-lying  peripheral  countries 
by  which  it  is  surrounded,  India,  Burma,  Siam,  and 
Cochin-China  on  the  south  ;  China  proper  on  the  west ; 
and  the  Tarim  Basin  with  East  Turkestan  on  the  north. 
The  great  rivers  which  water  these  countries  have  all  their 
sources  in  the  high  plateau, — the  Indus,  the  Ganges,  and 
the  Brahmaputra,  which  flow  through  India  and  debouch 
into  the  Indian  Ocean  on  the  South  ;  the  Irrawaddy  and 
the  Salwin  in  Burma  flowing  into  the  Bay  of  Bengal ; 
the  Lan-tsan-kiang,  or  Mekong,  which  crosses  Upper  Siam 
and  Cochin-China  and,  taking  a  south-west  course,  flows 
into  the  China  Sea  near  Saigon  ;  and  finally  the  Red 
River  of  Tongking,  which  rises  in  the  Chinese  province 
of  Yunnan,  itself  a  high  table-land  and  peninsular  exten- 
sion of  the  Tibetan  plateau. 

Coming  round  to  China,  we  have  the  two  great  rivers, 
the  Yangtse  and  the  Hoang-ho,  which  make  their  way  to 
the  Pacific,  running  right  athwart  the  "  eighteen  pro- 
vinces "  from  east  to  west :    the  one  a  solid  stream  of 

92 


THE    VALUE   OF    TIBET   TO    ENGLAND     93 

deep  water  navigated  some  two  thousand  miles  from  its 
mouth;  the  other  wide  and  shallow,  and,  owing  to  its 
eccentric  behaviour  and  irregular  flow,  commonly  known 
as  "  China's  Sorrow."  All  these  rivers  are  fed  by  the 
perennial  snows  that  adorn  the  great  mountain  wall 
which  fences  in  the  plateau  from  the  peripheral  countries, 
and  by  the  heavy  monsoon  rains  derived  from  the  masses 
of  vapour  which  the  south  winds  of  summer,  crossing 
the  Indian  Ocean  and  the  China  Sea,  pile  up  against  the 
mountain  barrier.  The  mountains  which  bound  the  great 
plateau  on  the  north,  the  Kwenlun  and  the  Altai  ranges, 
have  little  rainfall,  and  here  consequently  the  peripheral 
countries  are  little  better  than  deserts,  and  their  rivers 
only  intermittent  pools  of  water  for  the  greater  part  of 
the  year.  Northern  Tibet  is  itself  a  desert  of  lofty  peaks 
and  frozen  plateaus,  16,000  and  17,000  feet  above  the 
sea,  interspersed  with  desolate  lakes  of  salt  water,  and 
is  practically  uninhabited.  Southern  and  western  Tibet, 
bordering  on  India  and  China,  have  a  lower  elevation, 
the  plateau  ranging  generally  from  10,000  feet  to  13,000 
feet,  while  sufficient  moisture  here  penetrates  the  boundary 
wall  to  enable  a  considerable  population  to  dwell  in  com- 
fort and  to  combine  agriculture  with  the  pastoral  pursuits 
dear  to  all  Tibetans,  and  which  form  the  basis  of  such 
wealth  as  they  possess.  The  climate  in  this  region  is 
cool  and  bracing  in  summer,  while  the  winter  cold  is  by 
no  means  severe  ;  fresh  water  abounds,  and  the  streams 
are  so  rapid  that  they  are  seldom  hard  frozen.  The 
thermometer  at  Lhasa  is  seldom  known  to  fall  as  low  as 
zero  Fahrenheit,  and,  if  the  nights  are  cold,  the  sunshine 
by  day,  even  in  the  depth  of  winter,  is  warm  and  pleasant. 
Occasional  blizzards  occur,  generally  of  three  days' 
duration,  when  all  who  can  keep  within  doors  ;  but  calm 
weather  is  the  normal  condition,  sharp,  cold  air  tempered 
by  almost  continuous  sunshine.  My  own  small  experience 
of  it  leads  me  to  believe  it  to  be  one  of  the  finest  climates 
on  the  surface  of  the  globe. 

Bodyul,  or  the  land  of  Bod,  by  which  name  the  country 


94  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

is  known  to  the  Tibetans,  extends  about  1,200  miles 
east  and  west  (longitude  79  to  loi  e.)  and  about  700 
miles  north  and  south  (latitude  28  to  40  n.)  The  bound- 
ary wall  on  the  south,  or  Indian  side,  is  the  Himalaya 
range,  which  runs  east  and  west ;  after  reaching  the 
country  of  the  Kachins,  to  the  north  of  Burma,  this 
wall  turns  northwards  and  forms  the  boundary  between 
Tibet  and  China.  This  northern  extension  of  the  Hima- 
layas is  known  to  the  Chinese  as  the  Ta-shiieh  Shan,  or 
Great  Snow  Mountains,  a  name  of  the  same  meaning  as 
the  Himalaya  of  the  Indians.  In  appearance  the  Chinese 
range  is  much  the  same,  the  view  of  the  Ta-shiieh  Shan 
from  Mount  Omi  in  Szechuan  (11,000  feet)  being  analogous 
to  that  of  the  Himalaya  from  Darjeeling, — a  grand  wall 
of  snowy  peaks  and  glaciers  towering  into  the  sky  to  a 
height  estimated  at  22,000  feet  to  24,000  feet,  and 
dwarfing  the  high  Szechuan  ranges  that  lead  up  to  it 
by  contrast.  Through  this  wall  go  passes  which  lead  the 
traveller  to  the  Tibetan  plateau  beyond.  The  two  prin- 
cipal passes  leading  from  Szechuan  are  that  of  Ta-chien-lu 
(8,000  feet)  in  the  west,  which  forms  the  high  road  from 
Cheng-tu,  the  provincial  capital  of  Szechuan,  to  Batang 
and  Lhasa ;  and  the  Hsiieh-Pao-ting  (13,000  feet), 
which  leads  from  the  north  of  the  province  into  the  Tsai- 
dam  and  Ko-ko-nor  country  on  the  north-west. 

I  have  traversed  both  these  passes,  and  on  each  occa- 
sion found  myself  on  a  rolling  grassy  plateau,  the  home 
of  innumerable  flocks  of  the  big  Tibetan  sheep  and  of 
herds  of  the  hardy  yak.  Agriculture  is  impossible  on 
the  plateau  itself,  but  in  the  deep  ravines  cut  down  by 
the  many  streams  which  form  the  sources  of  the  great 
rivers  named  above,  barley,  the  main  food  of  the  people, 
is  grown  in  considerable  quantity.  While  sojourning  on 
the  plateau — the  ts'ao-ti,  or  grass  land,  as  the  Chinese 
call  it — I  have  been  the  guest  of  the  Tibetan  border 
tribes,  and  although  the  people  are  timid  and  suspicious, 
I  found  the  men  far  more  frank  and  manly  in  their 
behaviour  than  the  Chinese,  while  the  women,  who  do  all 


THE    VALUE   OF    TIBET   TO    ENGLAND      95 

the  work  and  all  the  entertaining,  are  politeness  itself, 
with  a  grace  and  freedom  of  manner  which  forms  a 
contrast  to  ''lat  of  the  downtrodden  Chinese  women 
as  pleasing  as  it  is  surprising.  As  a  merchant  and  wool- 
buyer,  my  presence  amongst  them  did  not  raise  the  sus- 
picions which  a  missionary  or  a  purely  scientific  traveller 
cannot  fail  to  give  rise  to.  The  Tibetans  on  the  Szechuan 
border  are  a  remarkably  handsome  race,  with  the  splendid 
physique  and  carriage  of  the  mountaineer  ;  they  have 
little  of  the  repulsive  Mongol  type  in  their  features  ; 
many  of  the  younger  men  would  pass  for  handsome 
ItaHans,  while  the  young  women  are  florid  brunettes, 
prepossessing  both  in  manners  and  appearance. 

The  Chinese  derive  no  revenue  from  Tibet,  and  their 
supremacy  is  all  but  nominal.  The  tribes  are  under  their 
own  Tu-sze  or  headmen,  with  a  few  Chinese  "  Residents  " 
posted  along  the  chief  highways  of  the  country.  A  few 
small  bands  of  ill-disciplined  Chinese  soldiers  guard  the 
frontier  towns  in  Szechuan,  and  are  posted  at  wide  intervals 
along  the  great  high  road  to  Lhasa.  But  generally  the 
Tibetans  know  little  of  the  Chinese,  who  scarcely 
interfere  with  them  in  any  way.  The  Tibetans  all  go 
armed  with  sword  and  musket,  while  the  Chinese  in  the 
border  towns  of  Tibet,  as  elsewhere,  are  ignorant  of  arms, 
and  could  not  resist  a  serious  attack  if  made.  But  a 
peaceful  trading  intercourse  between  the  two  peoples 
appears  to  have  removed  all  danger  of  a  renewal  of  the 
wars  that  were  constant  for  a  hundred  years  or  more 
after  the  so-called  conquest  of  Tibet  by  the  Emperor 
Kien-lung  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  century. 

Seeing  what  a  magnificent  sanatorium  Tibet,  if  properly 
opened  up,  would  afford  to  our  toiling  fellow-countrymen 
in  the  torrid  plains  of  India,  it  is  lamentable  to  think  that 
no  serious  steps  have  been  taken  to  render  Tibet  accessible 
to  Europeans  since  the  days  of  Warren  Hastings.  This 
grand  statesman,  with  the  conquest  of  India  on  his  hands, 
did  not  neglect  Tibet.  As  long  ago  as  1774  Warren  Hast- 
ings sent  a  mission  to  the   Tashi-Lama,   and    actually 


96  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

succeeded  in  making  a  peaceful  agreement  with  him  to 
open  up  a  trade  route  between  Tibet  and  Bengal.  Later 
Viceroys  left  the  matter  in  abeyance,  and  the  intercourse 
so  well  begun  gradually  died  out,  and  it  was  not  until 
1885  that  a  renewed  attempt  was  made  to  open  up 
the  country.  The  Macaulay  mission  of  200  men  with  500 
mules  was  despatched  to  Lhasa,  overcame  the  feeble  opposi- 
tion of  the  Dalai-Lama's  force  on  the  Sikkim  frontier, 
but  after  three  months  of  delay  and  negotiation  with 
Peking  was  recalled  by  the  Indian  Government.  This 
fatuous  act  was  prompted  by  the  foreign  advisers  of  the 
Chinese  Government.  Sir  Robert  Hart,  so  it  was  currently 
reported  at  the  time,  warned  our  Government  of  the  fatal 
consequences  of  the  breach  with  China  which  their  inter- 
ference in  Lhasa  would  produce.  Our  timid  rulers, 
unworthy  successors  of  Warren  Hastings  and  his  con- 
temporaries, instead  of  treating  China  as  a  quantity 
negligeahle,  appear  to  have  feared  the  shadowy  conse- 
quences of  their  advance  into  Tibet,  and  thus  a  grand 
opportunity  was  carelessly  thrown  away. 

Yet  it  is  not  too  late  for  resolute  action  even  at  this 
late  day.  China  is  falling  to  pieces  ;  its  outlying  depend- 
encies must  go.  Manchuria  has  in  part  gone  to  the  Rus- 
sians, and  Mongolia  looks  like  going  too.  Are  we  content 
to  see  them  in  Tibet  also,  hovering  over  India,  and  threat- 
ening a  descent  at  any  moment  ?  A  mission  of  five 
hundred  men  despatched  to  Lhasa  to-morrow  might  secure 
us  the  fealty  of  the  Dalai-Lama,  and  free  intercourse  with 
the  hardy  Tibetan  people.  ^ 

To  say  nothing  of  trade,  it  is  less  on  political  than  on 
sanitary  grounds  that  I  urge  that  Tibet  be  thrown  open 
to  settlement  from  India.  I  have  myself  twice  recovered 
my  health  by  fleeing  from  the  steamy  plains  of  China  to 
the  cold,  dry  atmosphere  of  the  great  plateau,  and  this 
notwithstanding  the  discomforts  and  hardships  of  land 

*  Alas  !  Since  then  Younghusband's  Mission  has  gone  and  come 
away  again  !  Coming  away  is  always  confused  in  the  East  with 
being  driven  out. — a.  e.  n,  l. 


THE    VALUE   OF    TIBET   TO    ENGLAND     97 

travel  under  present  conditions.  Englishmen  in  India 
need  such  a  change  within  easy  reach.  Darjeeling,  Simla, 
and  the  other  numerous  hill-stations  along  the  foot-hills 
of  the  Himalayas  are  on  the  hither  side  of  the  rain  belt, 
and  though  comparatively  cool,  are  still  damp  and  re- 
laxing. To  obtain  the  real  tonic  of  mountain  air  you  must 
get  behind  the  rain-belt.  Such  tonic  as  the  Tibetan  Pla- 
teau affords  is  {experto  crede)  not  to  be  found  in  Europe, 
and  when  one  realises  that  this  glorious  climate  could  be 
placed  by  rail  within  three  days  of  Calcutta,  one  naturally 
asks,  Why  is  it  not  done  ?  The  addition  of  Tibet  to  our 
Indian  Empire  would  solve  the  problem  of  our  permanent 
hold  of  India  ;  our  garrison  of  British  soldiers  could  occupy 
cantonments  as  healthy  as  any  in  Europe,  and  our  over- 
worked Indian  officials  could  then  run  up  to  Tibet  to 
recruit  as  easily  as  Londoners  now  run  to  Switzerland  and 
the  Tyrol.  Let  us  hope  that  soon  we  may  see  a  "  Far 
East  "  Office  added  to  our  Ministries,  and  that  China  and 
Tibet  will  be  studied  and  understood  by  our  Government, 
and  questions  of  the  greatest  import  to  the  weal  of  the 
Empire  no  longer  be  left  for  an  opportunist  decision  in  an 
emergency  through  want  of  due  attention  beforehand  and 
a  little  resolution. 


THE    PARTITION    OF    CHINA 

This  article  was  published  in  the  Asiatic  Quarterly  in  1898  and, 
short  though  it  is,  is  unfortunately  still  worth  the  reading 
for  all  those  likely  to  have  any  influence  on  the  conduct  of 
affairs  in  the  Far  East. — a.  e.  n.  l. 

The  above  sinister  phrase  has  been  much  in  men's  mouths, 
and  the  heinous  actions  it  calls  up  may  become  accom- 
plished facts  if  Britain  does  not  come  forward  and  take 
the  lead  in  averting  from  China  the  fate  of  Poland  ;  for 
China  is  politically  weak  through  the  corruption  of  its 
rulers  and  the  unwarlike  character  of  its  people.  The 
corruption  of  the  mandarinate  I  attribute  to  the  evil 
system  of  paying  the  officials  nominal  salaries  and  allowing 
them  to  farm  the  revenue  :  pay  them  well,  in  ratio  of 
their  responsibilities  and  of  the  position  and  staff  they  are 
called  upon  to  maintain,  and  I  believe  this  great  evil  that 
now  permeates  the  Chinese  bureaucracy  would  disappear. 
Even  as  it  is,  incorruptible  mandarins  are  not  uncommon, 
i.e.,  officials  who  will  not  take  bribes  and  who  do  not 
collect  more  revenue  from  their  districts  than  is  actually 
needed  for  administration  and  remittance  to  headquarters ; 
but,  human  nature  being  what  it  is — if  officials  are  allowed 
to  tax  at  discretion,  have  no  real  audit  of  accounts,  and 
it  is  merely  stipulated  that  a  certain  sum  must  be  handed 
over  as  nett  revenue,  the  majority  of  men,  be  they  Mongol 
or  Caucasian,  will  not  neglect  the  opportunity  of  feather- 
ing their  own  nests ;  especially  when,  by  the  rules  based 
upon  the  suspicion  of  their  Manchu  conquerors,  office  is 
held  at  the  outside  for  a  term  of  three  years,  and  that  never 
in  the  native  province  of  the  official,  but  in  what  is,  to  all 

98 


THE   PARTITION    OF    CHINA  99 

intents  and  purposes,  a  foreign  country.  This  impedi- 
ment to  good  government  is  well  known  to  progressive 
Chinese,  and,  as  they  have  a  brilliant  object-lesson  before 
them  in  the  administration  of  the  Imperial  Maritime 
Customs — in  which  both  the  Chinese  and  European  em- 
ployes receive  high  fixed  pay,  and  where  there  is  a  careful 
system  of  book-keeping  so  that  an  honest  return  to  the 
Government  of  the  revenue  collected  is  ensured — there  is 
reason  to  hope  in  time  for  a  change  of  system. 

The  Chinese  are,  in  the  view  of  latter-day  Europe,  pro- 
vokingly  conservative,  yet  hardly  more  so  than  were  our 
own  ancestors  :  they  are  an  extraordinarily  reasonable 
people,  and  when  they  once  grasp  a  subject,  action  gradu- 
ally results.  There  is  a  large  reform  party  in  the  country, 
daily  increasing  in  numbers  and  influence,  but  it  takes 
time  for  new  China  to  shake  off  old  China  :  the  old  fossils 
must  be  given  time  to  die  out  before  the  young  men  can 
give  scope  to  their  modernised  ideas  and  reform  the 
country — unless  by  a  bloody  revolution,  which  was  tried 
fifty  years  ago  and  failed.  Reforms  too  hurried  lead  to 
reaction,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case  of  the  Emperor 
Kwang-hsii  and  his  adviser  and  protege,  Kang  Yu-wei — 
the  so-called  "  modern  sage  " — and  as  our  own  European 
history  most  emphatically  teaches  us.  To  supplement 
this  general  axiom,  we  have  the  fact  that,  by  custom 
which  in  China  is  law,  innovations  of  any  kind  can  only 
be  carried  out  by  universal  consent.  In  private  affairs, 
where  great  changes  are  in  discussion,  the  majority  must 
convince  the  minority  ;  they  cannot  ride  roughshod  over 
dissidents  as  in  Europe  ;  they  must  get  their  assent,  which, 
in  practice,  is  usually  given,  where  the  minority  is  small, 
even  against  their  convictions,  for  the  sake  of  peace  and 
quietness.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  Chinese  are  often 
foolishly  suspicious  of  innovations,  especially  when 
offered  by  Europeans,  whose  complex  motives,  not  con- 
fined solely  to  money-making  as  they  think,  they  are 
incapable  of  gauging,  and  they  are  strengthened  in  their 
convictions  by  one  of  their  own  expressive  proverbs  : 


100  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

"  You  yi,  pi  you  hai  "  or — "  Where  there  is  advantage 
there  is  also  disadvantage,"  or,  "Evil  lurks  even  in 
advantage." 

The  second  impediment  to  the  continued  independence 
of  China  is  not  so  easily  remediable  as  is  the  first  ; — I  allude 
to  the  unwarlike  character  of  the  people.  In  our  present 
stage  of  civilisation,  where  Might  is  Right  and  Christianity 
nothing  but  an  impracticable  ideal,  this  is  a  fatal  defect 
in  any  people,  but  it  is  specially  fatal  to  the  occupiers 
of  a  country  so  exceptionally  rich  and  fertile  as  China. 
The  Chinese  cannot  defend  themselves  against  aggression, 
and  will  be  utterly  unable  to  do  so  for  another  century 
without  European  aid.  To  raise  an  army  such  as  their 
numbers  and  hardy  physique  should  render  possible, 
strong  enough  to  protect  the  country  against  European 
brute  force,  European  organisers  are  absolutely  necessary  ; 
not  simple  drill-instructors  as  hitherto,  but  a  trained 
European  staff.  This  must  come  ere  long  ;  the  great 
question  is,  Shall  this  training  be  under  the  supervision 
of  a  semi-civilLsed  corrupt  bureaucracy  like  that  of  Russia, 
or  under  the  guidance  of  liberal  Powers  like  England  and 
America,  and  I  would  even  add  Germany  ? 

China,  in  climate,  resources,  and  population,  is  worth  a 
dozen  Africas  to  our  trade, — that  foreign  trade  by  which 
alone  we  are  enabled  to  feed  our  people, — and,  in  my 
opinion,  is  worth  fighting  for  ;  although  at  the  same  time 
I  am  convinced  that,  had  Lord  Salisbury's  Government 
paid  due  attention  to  China  in  1897,  when  they  were 
warned  by  the  publication  of  the  Cassini  convention  of 
what  was  in  store  for  British  interests  in  China, — the 
country  which  we  had  opened  up  to  the  world,  where 
two-thirds  of  the  trade  and  two-thirds  of  the  foreign 
population  are  British, — and  declared  plainly  for  the  open 
door  policy  "  even  at  the  cost  of  war,"  the  late  military 
aggressions  of  Russia  would  not  have  been  attempted. 
It  was  what  has  been  well  called  by  Mr.  Asquith  the 
"  infirmity  of  purpose  and  inconsistency  of  method  of 
Lord  Salisbury,"   that  encouraged  Russia  to  come  on. 


THE    PARTITION    OF    CHINA  loi 

OrigifMl^  she  only  asked  f<y  an  kae-^ree  port  OP  tlae  Pacific, 
soatli  of  Vladivostock  :  to  tins  no  one  had  any  obiectkin : 
tiien  the  project  was  amended  by  a  proposal  to  bdng  the 
tezminos  of  the  Sbenan  Railway  to  the  Gnlf  oi  Pedhili. 
for  winch  purpose  the  Qdnese  granted  a  light  of  way 
throng^  Manchniia  and,  in  titor  weakness,  pennitted 
the  Russians  to  goazd  the  fine  with  Cossack  troops.  No 
formal  cesskm  of  the  otwmliy  to  Rnssia  was  made  ;  tiiB 
is  not  Rnssia 's  way  ;  a  stealthy  seizaie  oi  the  coimtry  is 
made  noisdessly  and  thns  European  oppositioo  k  dis- 
armed; meanwfaSe,  however,  Ri^aa  ad^--^-^^  her 
firantier  looo  miks  soath.     This  "«-s^  r. ::  r:  the 

pemnsnla  of  the  Regent's  swofd  was  zrizi  : 
Pn—    ^"^nnr,  rescued  £rom  the  J^zi'-^r    - 

rsu  of  China,  was  being  :     -.    i.'-::-: 
s-  1:     Peking  was    •:':.:■: ^-.z:.- i  :    „^ 

N:    .  :      .  '-:er>aoed  by  a  Riis?:ir.  :z._f:.r.  _:  -..r. 

IS  -.r.-  :-:::  .;.,_;:  re  ripe. 

\' -  -  : ! 7  : :  -  -  —  —. t - *.  had  sent  tw :•  zziZ-ci-'^-zi  i o 
^'. .  .  :  '  -.\t  '. ..::  .  17  : :  ?  :  rr  Arthur  ;  they  '.vere  there 
■■r  ■-.'.:.:.    -  r   -  -.     :  : ;.  -  ~ ':. :  r  t  >e  :  had  thev  beer  allowed  to 


.--Vt   i:L:rd  to  do    .:  t  —        ...    -  :    -    ::.:..:  ^   ::zdn- 
cT'  ?uld  have  jmt  cz  ::--    TLzuie  oi  the  fortress 

:  " venient  time.     Bu:  :.:  some  tinacconntahie 

:  jr^vemment  wdered  the  ship*?  to  withdraw, 
r  Rasstans  moved  in.  This  retreat  on  our  part 
cz-_:  _  -.-ri'.y  blow  to  our  prestige  in  the  East,  and  neoes- 
sarjy  -  .:-  .  .  -.a  into  the  anns  of  Rnssia  as  the  only 
?  -  '  :  T  ^  :  that  knew  its  o-wn  mind  and  must  conse- 
:  _  ' ".  :s:rd  on  the  best  terms  p>os5ible  by  the 

Mr.  C:.  _  -  a  weL-kncwm  speech  in  Manchester, 

c--'-'  :-i  ....  ^  .  .  .:-  ~.^-:t  and  boldly  asserted  that  no  door 
:.  :.  dosed  •.::  .  r.  is      We  have  treaties  with  China, 

ai:d  under  these  treaties  our  goods  have  free  access  to 
Manchuria.     Newch-w-ang  is  a  Treaty  Port  in  Manchuria, 


102  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

and  its  Customs  are  under  the  management  of  Sir  Robert 
Hart.  Do  the  Russians  respect  this  Treaty  Port  and 
observe  the  conditions  under  which  they  and  the  other 
Powers  having  treaty  rights  there  are  supposed  to  trade 
with  it  ?  Only  the  other  day,  the  Russians  totally  ignored 
the  Newchwang  Customs,  and  landed  the  cargoes  of  three 
vessels  destined  for  Manchuria  in  a  neighbouring  bay  with- 
out paying  duty.  This  is  a  sample  of  what  we  have  to 
expect  in  any  portion  of  the  Chinese  empire  occupied  by 
Russia.  Ta  Lien  Wan  bay,  in  rear  of  Port  Arthur,  we 
had  arranged  with  the  Chinese  to  make  an  open  port  ;  the 
Russians  seized  it,  and  no  British  subject  could  then  land 
there  without  a  Russian  passport.  When  the  new  Russian 
navigation  laws  come  into  force,  no  British  ships  will  be 
allowed  to  carry  goods  between  two  Russian  ports  ; 
hence  British  steamers  will  no  longer  be  able  to  carry 
kerosene  oil  from  Batoum  to  ports  in  China  occupied  by 
Russia.  The  import  of  kerosene  oil  into  China  is  a  large 
and  increasing  trade  ;  it  is  taking  the  place  of  all  other 
illuminants  throughout  China,  and  forms  a  great  field  for 
our  carrying  trade,  which  our  Government  should  have 
carefully  safeguarded. 

Having  let  things  drift  in  this  way,  the  question  is. 
What  can  we  do  to  recover  lost  ground  ?  Many  politicians 
appear  to  think  that  we  should  quietly  accept  the  inevit- 
able— that  Russia  is  bound  to  annex  Northern  China,  and 
we  must  make  the  best  of  it,  i.e.,  we  must  abandon  the 
policy  of  the  "  open  door,"  and  look  for  compensation  else- 
where. Thus  we  fall  back  on  "  spheres  of  influence,"  and 
so  have  indirectly  marked  out  the  Yangtse  valley  as  our 
sphere.  But  our  Government  does  not  appear  to  be  pre- 
pared to  ear-mark  this  region  in  any  way.  Russia  has  in- 
vaded this  sphere  likewise  ;  she  has  compelled  the  Chinese 
to  give  her  a  separate  special  concession  in  Hankow,  and, 
together  with  France,  is  now  in  occupation  of  land  there 
for  which  British  subjects  hold  the  title-deeds,  and  to 
which,  by  registry  in  the  British  Consulate  Land  Register 
years  ago,  they  fondly  imagined  themselves  to  hold  a  clear 


THE    PARTITION    OF    CHINA  103 

title.  The  Lu-han  railway,  from  Hankow  to  Tientsin, 
was  built  by  a  nominally  Belgian  syndicate  financed 
by  the  Russo-Chinese  Bank,  while  the  nominally  British, 
but  really  cosmopolitan,  Hongkong  and  Shanghai  Banking 
Corporation  was  prohibited  by  the  Russians  from  holding 
a  lien  on  the  new  railway  to  the  treaty  port  of  Newchwang 
for  which  they  had  advanced  the  funds  to  the  Chinese 
Government. 

These  and  many  other  encroachments  on  our  influence 
in  China  testify  to  the  fact  that,  if  we  continue  to  sit  idle 
and  to  drift,  our  opportunities  for  trade  with  the  largest 
potential  market  in  the  world  will  be  still  more  seriously 
curtailed.  Between  the  two  stools  of  the  "  open  door  " 
and  "spheres  of  influence,"  we  are  bound  to  fall  to  the 
ground  if  we  do  not  bestir  ourselves  ;  and  our  Government 
should  declare  openly  for  one  policy  or  the  other,  and  then 
support  the  one  selected  with  untiring  determination. 
The  open  door  all  round  is  a  true,  clear  policy ;  it  is  humane, 
just  to  the  Chinese,  and  in  the  interest  of  every  nation 
that  seeks  trade  and  intercourse  with  the  Chinese,  with 
no  ulterior  motives  of  preferential  advantages  for  itself. 
The  nations  who  now  hold  the  lion's  share  of  the  China 
trade  are  deeply  interested  in  upholding  the  status  quo, 
and  it  ought  not  to  be  beyond  the  powers  of  diplomacy 
to  bring  about  an  agreement  between  them  to  resist 
further  aggression  upon  China,  and  to  compel  the  Russians 
to  keep  the  door  open,  even  in  Manchuria,  on  the  terms 
of  our  treaties  with  China.  A  joint  protectorate  by 
these  nations,  not  a  political  interference,  but  an  assurance 
against  outside  aggression,  should  meet  the  case  if  it  can  be 
brought  about.  China  has  the  seeds  of  reform  in  herself, 
and,  if  given  time  and  an  assurance  of  protection,  will 
surely,  if  slowly,  bring  them  to  maturity ;  and  the  wise 
policy  is  to  help  her  to  reform  herself — analogous  to  the 
policy  Sir  Harry  Parkes  was  allowed  to  pursue  in  Japan. 
But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  all  other  European  nations  have 
determined  to  partition  China,  and  our  pacific  remon- 
strances are  of   no  avail,  then,  I  take  it,  it  is  the  duty  of 


104  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

the  Government  to  see  that  Britain  takes  the  hon's  share, 
if  only  as  a  stake  and  means  of  bargain  for  the  open  door 
with  rival  Powers,  and,  farther,  as  a  means  of  training 
the  Chinese  and  enabling  them  later  on  to  undertake  their 
own  self-defence.  Continuous  attention,  to  ensure  which 
a  special  Far  East  Department  should  be  organised, 
appears  to  me  the  only  sure  means  by  which  either  of  the 
above  ends  can  be  satisfactorily  accomplished. 


HOW    TO    REGISTER  YOUR  TRADE-MARK 
IN   TWENTIETH    CENTURY    PEKING 

Having  been  informed  of  the  proper  course  to  take  and 
that  I  should  do  well  to  register  my  valuable  trade-mark 
at  the  central  office  opened  for  the  purpose  in  this  city, 
I  forthwith  set  about  acting  upon  the  advice  tendered, 
and,  for  the  sake  of  others  who  may  wish  to  learn  the 
ropes,  I  now  relate  my  experience. 

All  foreigners  who  come  to  Peking,  either  on  business 
or  pleasure,  reside  more  or  less  in  the  Legation  quarter, 
in  and  around  which  are  located,  in  addition  to  the 
Legations  of  the  different  Powers,  the  principal  hotels, 
stores,  and  foreign  mission  establishments.  The  Legation 
area  abuts  on  the  Winter  Palace  and  the  railway  stations, 
and  the  famous  Waiwupu  or  "  Board  of  Foreign  Affairs  " 
is  not  far  off ;  the  now  extensive  offices  of  the  Inspector- 
ate-General of  the  Imperial  Chinese  Customs,  which 
maintains  a  large  staff  in  Peking,  are  equally  in  this, 
the  southern  and  business  quarter  of  the  Tartar  City. 
Now  the  Shangpu  or  "  Board  of  Trade  "  is  not  in  this 
quarter,  nor  could  I  find  anybody  to  tell  me  where  it  was, 
and  so,  on  the  first  day  of  my  attempt,  had  to  abandon 
my  prospective  visit  to  the  Registration  Department 
as  a  bad  job.  However,  my  intelligent  native  "Boy" 
undertook  to  discover  the  office  and  to  provide  a  ricsha 
to  convey  me  thither. 

So,  on  the  following  day,  I  set  out  upon  my  voyage  of 
discovery.  The  ricsha-man,  as  Peking  ricsha-men  do, 
bowled  along  at  a  great  pace,  smothering  me  with  dust 
and  whirling  me  through  an  intricate  network  of  alleys 

105 


io6  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

and  narrow  lanes  and  twisting  round  comers,  over  hillocks 
of  garbage  and  through  swamps  of  black  mud,  at  the 
risk  of  my  bones,  if  not  of  my  life,  much  as  do 
cabmen  at  home.  They  too  prefer  the  by-way  to  the 
highway. 

A  main  street  through  which  I  passed  was  thronged 
with  people  gathered  to  witness  the  execution  of  a  criminal 
by  the  ling-chi  process,  and  I  had  difficulty  in  making 
my  way  through  the  crowd.  The  event  was  more  than 
commonly  interesting  owing  to  the  fact  of  the  criminal 
being  a  high  official.  This  man,  it  appeared,  had,  during 
the  disturbances  in  1900,  murdered  two  whole  families 
and  so  acquired  their  possessions  ;  he  was  recently  de- 
nounced by  a  woman,  his  guilt  proved,  and  sentence 
passed  accordingly.  I  would  not  be  diverted,  however, 
from  my  quest  of  the  Shangpu,  but  a  European  who  was 
present  at  the  execution  told  me  that  it  was  a  most  tragic 
spectacle  ;  the  prescribed  process  was  literally  carried 
out,  the  pieces  of  flesh,  as  cut  away,  being  thrown  to  the 
crowd,  who  scrambled  for  the  dreadful  relics.  In  China 
we  are  still  in  the  middle  ages. 

The  Shangpu,  after  many  enquiries  by  my  ricsha 
coolie  on  the  way,  was  at  last  discovered  in  a  back  street 
away  in  the  north-west  quarter  of  the  city,  a  three- 
quarter-hour  run  from  the  Legations.  It  turned  out  to 
be  situated  in  a  spacious  Chinese  "  Kung-kwan,"  with  the 
customary  court-yards  and  pavilions,  all  new  and  un- 
commonly clean — very  much  more  so  than  the  sheds 
in  which  the  famous  Wai-wu-pu,  or  Board  of  Foreign 
Affairs,  transacts  the  business  of  the  Empire  with  the 
outside  world.  I  had  been  warned  that  my  visit  would  be 
regarded  with  suspicion  and  cause  a  flutter  in  the  official 
dove-cotes,  although  I  could  not  see  why  this  should  be 
the  case,  seeing  that  I  was  only  bent  on  an  ordinary 
matter  of  business,  and  in  an  office  established  ad  hoc. 
Still,  Chinese  officials  live  in  an  atmosphere  of  suspicion, 
and  credit  the  barbarian  with  even  more  than  their  own 
"  tergitwistiveness." 


HOW  TO  REGISTER  YOUR  TRADE-MARK     107 

Be  that  as  it  may,  after  sending  in  my  card,  I  was  kept 
waiting  ten  minutes,  by  my  watch,  on  the  doorstep  in  the 
cold  wind,  when  at  last  a  coolie  appeared  and  wanted  to 
know  what  my  business  was  before  admitting  me.  It 
was  not  an  easy  matter  to  explain  to  him  that  I  had  come 
to  register  a  trade-mark,  the  Chinese  language  being 
somewhat  inelastic  where  new-fangled  foreign  notions 
are  concerned.  However,  he  at  last  gathered  that  I  was 
determined  not  to  leave  without  an  audience  with  some- 
body, and  again  left  me  on  the  doorstep.  Another  five 
minutes  and  the  welcome  announcement  "  Ching  "  was 
made  and  the  coolie  preceded  me,  holding  aloft  my  rather 
insignificant-looking  scrap  of  white  pasteboard. 

Passing  through  several  courts  and  low  doorways,  I  was 
at  last  shown  into  a  pavilion  supported  on  eight  pillars  and 
surrounded  with  glass  windows,  with  a  wide-open  door 
through  which  I  had  entered  on  the  south,  and  a  similar 
door  leading  into  another  courtyard  on  the  north,  and 
through  which  the  north  wind  was  blowing  strong,  al- 
though a  Japanese  screen  mitigated  its  force.  The 
spacious  hall  contained  a  foreign  carpet,  a  centre  table 
with  a  gaudy  table-cover,  four  foreign  arm-chairs  and 
tea-poys,  each  guarded  by  two  foreign  chairs  round  the 
walls.  The  coolie  or  "  tingchai "  disappeared  and  I 
cooled  my  heels  for  another  five  minutes.  Then  the  man 
returned  with  an  ash-tray  and  a  box  of  Japanese  matches, 
which  he  placed  with  great  deliberation  exactly  in  the 
centre  of  the  big  table.  Another  long  pause  and  a  second 
man  appeared  with  a  teapot,  which  he  solemnly  placed 
on  one  of  the  side  tables  and  then  went  out.  Hereupon 
the  first  man  returned  and  poured  a  cup  of  tea  into  a 
foreign  tea-cup,  which  he  ceremoniously  placed  before 
me  and  withdrew.  At  length  the  "  great  man  "  himself 
appeared  through  the  north  door  and,  after  having 
furnished  him  with  a  short  autobiographical  sketch  of 
my  career  in  the  Celestial  Empire,  we  came  to  the  point,, 
and,  after  smoking  several  cigarettes,  which  coolie  No.  i 
had  meanwhile  placed  alongside  the  original  match-box. 


io8  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

my  interlocutor  proceeded  to  realise  the  object  of  my 
visit. 

"  Yes,  this  was  the  trade-mark  registry  office  and  was 
now  in  full  swing." 

"  Had  many  applications  to  register  been  made  ?  " 

"  Yes,  several." 

"  Any  by  Europeans  ?  " 

"  None  so  far." 

"  Whom  by,  then  ?  " 

"  Mostly  Japanese,  also  some  Chinese." 

"  Could  the  great  man  oblige  me  by  showing  me  the 
register  and  supplying  me  with  the  needful  application 
forms  ?  "  These  I  had  seen  at  the  office  of  the  Imperial 
Maritime  Customs,  but  that  office  transacts  no  direct 
business. 

The  register  was  not  visible,  nor  had  the  appli- 
cation forms  yet  been  printed. 

"  Would  it  then  not  be  better  and  save  trouble  if  I  were 
to  send  to  Shanghai  and  have  my  mark  registered  there  ?  " 

"  Oh,  no  !  this  was  the  Central  Office  and  I  should  be 
far  more  secure  registered  in  it." 

Meanwhile  my  friend  summoned  a  clerk  and  had  the 
two  necessary  forms  written  out  in  manuscript  in  exquisite 
Chinese  caligraphy  ;  he  farther  produced  a  Book  of 
Regulations  and  drew  my  attention  to  the  more  important 
clauses,  especially  Clause  i6,  which  defines  the  form  and 
size  of  the  mark  to  be  handed  in,  and  which  must  not 
exceed  three  by  four  inches  in  superficies  and  seven  and 
one-half  tenths  of  an  inch  in  thickness.  Here  the  Japanese 
screen  at  our  backs  blew  down  with  a  bang  and  smothered 
us  and  our  documents — a  convenient  signal  for  terminating 
the  interview,  which  concluded  by  my  being  graciously 
presented  with  a  copy  of  the  "  Regulations,"  the  volume 
consisting  of  fifty  pages  of  closely  printed  type,  which 
I  was  advised  to  take  home  and  study  carefully,  and 
proceed  as  therein  directed — and  not  to  forget  to  return 
again,  bringing  with  me  the  prescribed  fee  of  thirty-five 
taels  silver,  about  five  guineas. 


HOW  TO  REGISTER  YOUR  TRADE-MARK     109 

Another  cup  of  tea,  a  cordial  "  Chin-chin,"  and  I 
departed,  having  spent  an  instructive  day  in  learning 
"  how  not  to  do  it,"  and  in  adding  another  to  my  previous 
experiences  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  this  delightful 
country.     But  my  trade-mark  has  still  to  be  registered  ! 

Note. — The  Chinese  Trade-mark  department  was  in  a 
painfully  perturbed  condition  at  the  moment.  After  the 
issue  of  an  Imperial  Notification  that  the  Board  of  Com- 
merce would  commence  registry  forthwith,  the  German 
Minister,  Baron  Mumm,  proceeded  to  interview  the  Board 
of  Foreign  Affairs  and  extorted  from  them  a  promise  that 
registration  of  trade-marks  should  be  postponed  for  two 
years,  and  notified  his  nationals  accordingly.  Thereupon 
the  Japanese  Minister  hurried  to  the  Board  and  demanded 
to  know  what  they  meant  by  setting  aside  an  Imperial 
Edict.  The  harassed  Board  (Prince  Ching  and  others) 
now  denied  that  they  had  ever  given  such  promise  and 
said  that,  of  course,  the  Imperial  Edict  held  good.  Mean- 
while the  Board  of  Commerce  is  officially  open  to  register, 
and  pining  probably  for  the  merry  Mexicans,  with  visions 
of  10,000  trade-marks  rushing  for  registry  while  the  Ger- 
man Minister  bravely  goes  on  protesting. 

Originally  the  trade-marks  department  was  placed  by 
the  Waiwupu  in  the  hands  of  the  Imperial  Maritime  Cus- 
toms ;  then  the  Shangpu  wanted  to  know  what  their 
luxurious  establishment  existed  for,  and  were  they  not 
entitled  to  do  the  business  and  collect  the  fees  ?  So  the 
Waiwupu  took  the  matter  out  of  the  hands  of  the  capable 
and  business-like  Foreign  Customs,  and  placed  it  in  hands 
manifestly  more  deserving.  Whether  these  hands  are 
capable  of  guarding  one's  trade-mark  from  purloinment, 
time  will  show.  So  far  it  looks  as  if  the  needy  Chinese 
officials,  and  later  on  the  legal  profession,  would  be  the 
chief  gainers. 


Part   II :   Travel 

THE    ROMANCE    OF   CHINESE   TRAVEL 

The  charm  of  travel  in  China  is  the  unexpected.  In 
Europe  all  is  cut  and  dried.  "  Dresden  ;  see  the  picture 
gallery.  Admire  the  Madonna  di  San  Sisto."  "  Munich  ; 
gallery  again  !  Hotel  des  Quatre  Saisons  ;  excellent !  " 
In  all  probability  you  have  even  heard  beforehand  of  the 
quality  of  the  rolls,  and  which  is  the  desirable  table  for 
breakfast.  As  far  as  surprise  goes  you  might  almost  as 
well  be  supplied  by  the  accustomed  baker,  seated  at  your 
own  fireside.  Now  in  China  it  is  all  the  other  way.  There 
is  no  guide-book.  You  never  know  when  you  may  arrive, 
and  so  far  is  this  carried  that  you  rarely  know  where  a 
head  wind  may  delay  your  boat,  necessitating  tying  up 
for  the  night  in  some  noisy,  carousing  village  ;  or  a  favour- 
able wind  carry  you  before  sunset  to  the  quiet  haven  under 
a  projecting  cliff  where  you  desired  to  be,  in  time  to  take 
a  walk  and  discover  a  beautiful  old  temple,  now  crumbling 
to  decay  but  commanding  one  of  the  world's  beautiful 
views  and  with  quaint  carvings  on  its  gateways  and 
stone  lions  guarding  them,  their  heads  on  one  side,  and 
irresistibly  mirth-provoking.  In  land  travel  it  is  the 
same.  You  design  to  alight  at  some  townlet,  all  the  in- 
habitants turn  out  en  masse  and  pelt  you  through  it,  as 
if  you  were  a  Derby  dog  with  a  tin  kettle  tied  on  behind  ; 
or  suddenly  in  passing  you  become  aware  of  a  whole  hill- 
side shaped  into  the  head  and  shoulders  of  a  colossal 
Buddha,  and  in  turning  aside  to  admire,  find  yourself 
obliged,  lest  you  should  be  belated,  to  take  up  your  night's 
quarters  in  a  place  of  which  you  have  never  heard. 

With  a  well-appointed  team  of    carrying  coolies  and 


THE    ROMANCE    OF    CHINESE    TRAVEL   iii 

sedan  chair  well  borne,  if  it  is  a  land  j  ourney ;  or  with  a  well 
found  Chinese  house-boat  and  complaisant  captain,  there 
is  a  feeling  of  independence,  such  as  can  never  be  experi- 
enced by  those  dependent  upon  trains  and  steamers. 
Then  you  meet  such  strange  things,  a  wedding-party, 
for  instance,  gaily  caparisoned,  going  out  to  fetch  the 
bride.  As  they  wind  down  the  mountain  side  with  their 
flags  flying  you  cannot  but  pause  and  watch.  Then  per- 
haps you  see  them  meet  another  party  :  high  words 
apparently  arise,  for  next  moment  one  of  the  gay  cavaliers 
is  being  attacked  by  the  other  party,  whilst  all  his  com- 
rades, huddled  together  on  their  ponies  on  a  little  hill  by 
the  road-side,  are  More  Sinensi  trying  to  look  as  if  they 
did  not  belong  to  him.  Another  time  we  were  badly 
pelted  ourselves  ;  our  cook  with  his  clothes  torn  almost 
off  his  back  was  in  high  glee,  because  he  declared  he  had 
given  more  than  he  got,  and  I  had  myself  the  pleasure  of 
seizing  the  silk-clad  town  leader,  who  had  been  paying 
those  of  the  baser  sort  to  stone  us,  and  taking  him  by  the 
scruff  of  the  neck,  dipping  him  very  satisfactorily  into  a 
paddy  field,  at  that  season  simply  a  mass  of  liquid 
mud.  Our  major  domo,  who  is  as  great  a  coward  as  he 
is  a  first-rate  butler,  explained  afterwards  to  my  wife  : 
"  My  vely  nearly  fightee  too.  And  then  my  thinkee 
how  dleadful  for  you,  Mississi,  if  my  fightee  too.  So  my 
come  away." 

On  another  occasion  it  was  our  fighting  cook  who  was  in 
the  wrong.  And  the  whole  party  of  us  were  hurried 
along  to  a  wayside  house  where  some  village  elders  were 
sitting.  It  seemed  that  in  the  anger  of  a  melee  our  cook 
had  showered  maledictions  upon  the  mother  of  one  of  his 
foes,  aspersing  her  character.  And  it  appears  that  in 
China  this  is  an  offence  that  cannot  be  made  good  by 
blows  as  in  Europe,  nor  can  it  be  atoned  for  by  money. 
There  and  then,  in  the  presence  of  those  who  had  heard 
the  insult,  our  pugilistic  cook  had  to  kneel  down  and 
solemnly  retract  and  apologise.  And  yet  some  of  us  speak 
of  the  Chinese  as  uncivihsed  ! 


112  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Travel  in  China  is  divided  into  two  distinct  phases, 
the  one  positively  luxurious,  the  other  p'enihle  in  the 
extreme  :  both  are  slow  and  dilatory  and  try  your  patience 
if  pressed  for  time,  but  no  one  who  is  in  a  hurry  should 
ever  attempt  to  travel  in  the  Flowery  Land  : — these  two 
phases  are,  water  and  land  travel.  China,  like  all  other 
large  continents,  excepting  only  that  curiously  abnormal 
land,  Australia,  is  mainly  mountainous.  The  level  coun- 
try is  confined  to  the  deltas  of  the  great  rivers  and  a  few 
beds  of  ancient  lakes,  now  dry  :  these  cover  a  large  extent 
of  country,  especially  in  the  east  and  north  where  the 
land  abuts  on  the  famous  Yellow  Sea,  daily  extending  the 
flat  country  seawards  by  the  enormous  masses  of  silt 
annually  brought  down  from  the  interior  by  the  swift 
currents  of  the  great  rivers  that  traverse  the  Empire 
from  west  to  east.  This  level  country,  of  vast  extent,  is 
intersected  by  a  network  of  canals  so  efficient  that  land 
roads  are  not  needed,  the  whole  traffic  of  the  country 
being  carried  on  by  water  as  was  formerly  the  case  in 
Holland.  Here  you  travel  in  your  own  or  in  a  hired  house- 
boat, not  perhaps  quite  as  ostentatiously  luxurious 
as  those  upon  our  own  familiar  Thames,  but  furnished 
with  every  necessary  and  comfort,  including  the  cheap 
and  handy  native  "  Boy  "  and  cook.  Game  abounds, 
and  beyond  the  fact  that  a  morning's  walk  will  surely 
enable  a  good  shot  to  fill  the  larder  with  pheasants,  wild 
fowl,  snipe,  or  deer,  there  is  little  romance  though  great 
exhilaration  in  this  mode  of  travel. 

But  when  you  come  to  traverse  the  mountainous 
regions  of  the  interior  which  cover  four-fifths  of  the  coun- 
try, and  exchange  your  floating  hostelry  for  the  inns,  food, 
and  footpaths  of  the  country,  the  romance  of  travel  really 
begins  in  the  shape  of  every  possible  discomfort  and  annoy- 
ance short  of  actual  starvation,  seasoned  by  a  spice  of 
danger.  As  to  the  mode  of  progression,  you  have  usually 
your  choice, — I  am  speaking  of  South  and  Middle  China 
and  not  of  the  North,  where  springless  mule-carts  are  in 
vogue, — of  sedan-chairs,  pony,  or  your  own  legs,  and  to 


THE    ROMANCE    OF    CHINESE    TRAVEL    113 

these  last,  if  you  are  any  sort  of  pedestrian,  you  will 
eventually  resort  as  the  safest  and  pleasantest  mode  of 
progression  over  steep  mountain  paths,  up  and  down  rocky 
ravines,  along  the  boulder-strewn  beds  of  dry  rivers,  across 
bridges  formed  of  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  by  narrow  cornices 
cut  out  of  the  side  of  a  precipice  and  sometimes  projecting 
out  from  it,  supported  on  shaky  joists  driven  into  the 
rock. 

Journeys  on  these  main  thoroughfares  are  divided  into 
stages  averaging  20  to  25  miles  daily,  at  the  end  of  which 
you  sup  and  rest  in  a  so-called  inn,  really  a  cross  between 
a  stable  and  a  pig-sty,  the  food  often  differing  little  from 
that  furnished  to  these  valuable  animals,  who  are  generally 
better  cared  for  than  is  their  human  rival,  the  biped  beast 
of  burden,  the  hard-worked  patient  Chinese  coolie. 

At  the  time  that  the  Empire  was  in  the  throes  of  the 
great  Taiping  Rebellion,  which  had  literally  converted  the 
garden  of  China,  the  broad  Yangtse  valley,  into  a  howling 
wilderness,  I  was  traversing  the  stretch  of  No-man's  Land, 
some  hundred  miles  across,  that  at  that  time  separated 
the  rebel  lines  from  the  headquarters  of  the  Imperialist 
command,  then  slowly  drawing  tight  the  toils  round  the 
doomed  capital  of  Taiping-dom,  Nanking.  Followed  by 
two  frightened  coolies  carrying  my  bed  and  food,  I  had 
marched  three  days  through  an  utterly  depopulated  coun- 
try, camping  at  night  in  deserted  towns,  where  we  slept 
in  a  ruined  house,  usually  on  a  floor  of  broken  bricks,  the 
woodwork  of  the  houses  having  been  all  torn  away  for 
fuel  by  the  contending  armies, — here  and  there  an  un- 
buried  corpse,  not  yet  entirely  devoured  by  beasts  of 
prey, — and  I  imagined  the  country  to  be  as  utterly 
depopulated  as  it  appeared.  The  many  years  that  the 
country  had  been  deserted  was  shewn  by  the  large  flocks 
of  wild  fowl  that  covered  every  pond,  while  droves  of 
pheasants,  as  tame  as  barn-door  fowls,  filled  the  no 
longer  cultivated  fields. 

We  had  arrived  early  in  the  afternoon  at  a  town 
within  a  day's  march  of  the  investing  general's  camp  : 


114  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

my  men  had  routed  out  some  broken  window  frames 
from  the  shop  front  under  whose  ruined  roof  we  had 
found  partial  shelter  from  the  weather,  and  were  busy 
cooking  our  dinner.  Outside  the  town,  on  a  hillside, 
stood  an  ancient  monastery,  which  I  decided  to  visit.  I 
strolled  on  alone,  and  was  standing  by  the  open  door 
admiring  the  elegant  proportions  of  the  architecture, 
when,  without  a  sound  of  warning,  I  suddenly  found  my- 
self thrown  to  the  ground — a  dozen  strong  men  holding 
me  down  and  rapidly  tying  me  up  with  strong  cord.  The 
previous  unbroken  silence  was  changed  for  the  roar  which 
only  excited  Chinese  voices  can  raise, — a  roar  above  which 
it  was  impossible  for  me  to  get  in  an  audible  word.  Shouts 
of  "  Ta  !  Ta  !  "— "  Kill,  kill  !  "—were  all  I  could  distin- 
guish ;  more  people  with  boys  and  women  seemed  to  spring 
out  of  the  ground  as  the  uproar  increased  ;  my  clothes 
were  torn  off  me  and  I  was  pelted  with  mud  and  stones  ; 
finally,  bleeding  and  bruised  all  over,  I  was  carried  away 
half-unconscious  and  thrown  into  a  filthy  cellar,  outside 
which  I  heard  the  assembled  crowd,  now  happily  for  me 
reinforced  by  some  older  men,  excitedly  discussing  my 
fate.  "  Kill  him  !  Hang  him  !  " — were  the  only  words 
I  could  distinguish,  but  I  felt  less  alarmed  when  I  saw 
the  village  elders  appear  upon  the  scene  lighted  by  a 
cluster  of  the  picturesque  Chinese  lanterns. 

The  village  elder  is  one  of  those  grand  institutions, 
handed  down  from  antiquity,  which  has  proved  the  saving 
of  many  lives,  foreign  as  well  as  native,  from  an  infuriated 
mob :  they  are  highly  respected  by  the  people,  and,  in 
ordinary  times,  invariably  their  word  is  law,  confirmed  as 
they  are  in  their  position  by  the  officials  of  the  district. 
But  at  times  the  passions  of  the  mob,  and  usually  in  the 
case  of  missionaries,  are  roused  by  hired  ruffians  from 
outside  who  are  paid  to  kill,  and  from  time  to  time  an 
unfortunate  missionary  is  sacrificed  to  the  (not  unnatural) 
hate  of  the  Chinese  literati  to  an  alien  religion.  In  my 
case,  the  excitement  being  confined  to  the  people  of  the 
place  who  had  taken  refuge  in  the  monastery,  the  elders 


THE    ROMANCE    OF    CHINESE   TRAVEL    115 

prevailed — telling  the  people,  as  I  heard  them  when  the 
excitement  began  to  calm  down,  that  in  the  morning  they 
would  take  me  alive  to  the  Imperialist  camp  close  by  to  be 
questioned  under  torture  as  a  rebel  spy.  They  then  shut 
me  up,  padlocking  the  door,  and  retired  for  the  night. 

The  winter  nights  in  January  in  this  part  of  China  are 
bitterly  cold  with  sharp  frosts,  and  my  great  anxiety  was 
whether,  unable  to  move  and  the  circulation  impeded  by 
my  bonds,  I  should  be  able  to  keep  alive  through  the 
night.  I  doubt  if  I  could  have  survived  under  the  circum- 
stances, but  fortunately  my  constitution  was  not  put  to 
the  test.  My  faithful  coolies  had  followed  me,  and  before 
midnight,  succeeded  in  finding  me  ;  they  managed  to 
convince  the  elders  that  I  was  on  my  way  to  interview  the 
Imperialist  commander ;  that  I  was  a  "  great  British  mer- 
chant," not  one  of  the  many  English  and  Americans 
who  were  then  fighting  in  the  rebel  ranks  (nearly  all 
of  whom  were  massacred  three  years  later,  at  the  capture 
of  Nanking)  and  was  come  to  supply  the  Imperial 
army  with  foreign  arms  and  ammunition  (which  was 
not  the  case).  My  having  come  from  the  rebel  head- 
quarters, where  I  had  had  a  most  interesting  interview 
with  the  "  Chung  Wang  "  (the  loyal  prince)  and  my 
possession  of  a  flaming  yellow  passport  issued  by  the 
Great  Prince  of  Peace  (the  rebel  leader  Hung  Shiu  Chuen) 
they  cleverly  explained  to  the  elders'  satisfaction — and 
still  more  succeeded  in  frightening  them  with  fears  of 
terrible  reprisals  that  would  follow  if  they  touched  a  hair 
of  an  Englishman's  head — such  was  our  prestige  in  the 
good  old  days  of  Parkes  and  Gordon. 

To  make  a  long  story  short  : — I  was  released  and  escort- 
ed back  to  our  encampment  in  the  town.  As  I  lay  on 
my  bed,  utterly  exhausted,  the  elders  returned  and  begged 
I  would  not  have  them  punished  :  in  the  morning  they 
brought  back  my  clothes  and  watch-chain  in  fragments, 
and  my  revolver,  which  was  fortunately  intact ;  after  a 
day's  rest  in  most  uncomfortable  quarters,  but  wrapped 
up  in  the  warm  wadded  quilt  which  all  travellers  carry 


ii6  GLEANINGS   FROM   CHINA 

with  them  in  China,  I  was  able  to  proceed  to  the  fortified 
camp,  where  I  presented  my  card  to  the  General,  who 
received  me  somewhat  suspiciously,  but  was  anxious 
to  talk  and  much  taken  with  my  revolver,  a  double- 
trigger  "  Tranter."  I  captured  his  good  graces  by  firing 
at  his  request  at  a  mark  about  40  yards  off.  By  luck  I 
hit  the  bull's  eye,  and  the  General  was  so  pleased  that  he 
wanted  to  retain  me  for  his  body-guard,  and  offered  me  an 
attractive  young  girl  as  wife.  Though  the  Imperialists 
treated  the  unfortunate  population  better  than  the  rebels, 
still,  such  were  their  habits,  no  self-respecting  European 
could  serve  either  side  unless  in  a  free  command  which 
was  never  conceded.  Besides,  I  had  come  on  the  business 
of  chartering  a  steamer  to  convey  troops  along  the  Yangtse 
River — a  business  which  I  ultimately  put  through, — 
and  not  to  play  at  soldiering,  however  attractive  the 
prospect  of  seeing  Chinese  life  under  favoured  conditions. 
Many  other  adventures  have  I  experienced  in  that  weird 
land,  but  none  that  has  left  a  deeper  impression  upon  me 
than  my  march  across  country  from  the  Rebel  to  the 
Imperialist  camp  in  January,  1861. 


A   NEW   ROAD 

One  of  the  most  striking  defects  in  the  civihsation  of 
China  is  the  absence  of  anything  that  can  be  truly  called  a 
road.  It  seems  strange  that  so  vast,  so  populous,  and,  in 
many  ways,  so  highly  civilised  a  State  should  have  held 
together  longer  than  any  other  empire  in  history  in  default 
of  any  decent  means  of  intercommunication.  The  wonder 
is  that  China  did  not  remain  the  congeries  of  independent 
States  that  it  practically  was  in  the  time  of  Confucius 
and  such  as  Europe  is  now.  Too  few  details  have  come 
down  to  us  of  the  events  of  the  third  century  before 
Christ — which  led  to  the  union  of  the  whole  empire 
under  the  despotism  of  Chin  Shih  Hwangti,  the  "  First 
Emperor "  so  called — for  us  to  understand  how  the 
Napoleon  of  China  succeeded  where  a  similar  attempt,  and 
by  a  more  consummate  genius,  in  Europe,  two  thousand 
years  later,  utterly  broke  down.  We  know  that  China 
again  split  up  into  "  Three  Kingdoms  "  four  hundred 
years  afterwards,  and  was  not  finally  reunited  until  after 
another  century  of  internecine  strife.  Since  then,  amidst 
the  many  struggles  that  have  accompanied  the  several 
changes  of  dynasties,  no  attempt  at  separation  has  taken 
place,  although  did  any  province  desire  to  set  up  for 
itself,  nothing  would  seem  to  be  easier  than  to  hold  any 
invading  troops  at  bay  in  the  roadless  mountains  which 
generally  form  the  boundaries.  No  motive  for  any  such 
separation  exists  now,  however,  the  welding  of  the  many 
regions  that  compose  China  proper  being  thorough  and 
complete,    and   the     intercommunication    most     active 

117 


ii8  GLEANINGS    FROM   CHINA 

though  carried  on  under  difficulties  which  would  repel 
a  less  patient  people. 

The  vast  mountain-girdled  province  of  Szechuan  is 
one  that  possesses  the  strongest  natural  frontiers,  and  as 
the  Kingdom  of  "  Shu  "  it  did  succeed  in  maintaining  for 
a  time  an  independent  dynasty,  during  the  wars  of  the 
Three  Kingdoms.  How  the  invading  forces  from  Hupeh 
ultimately  overthrew  the  Szechuan  army  of  defence, 
posted  at  the  head  of  the  gorges  below  Kwei-fu,  is 
pointed  out  to  the  traveller  by  the  remains  of  walls  and 
camps  and  by  the  marvellous  steps  cut  across  the  face  of 
the  cliff,  that  forms  the  south  wall  of  the  "  Bellows  " 
Gorge  ;  by  means  of  which,  tradition  asserts,  the  supposed 
impregnable  position  of  the  defenders  was  turned,  their 
camp  surprised  and  the  rival  Emperor  killed,  and  so  the 
temporary  autonomy  of  Szechuan  extinguished  for  ever. 
This  historical  spot  is  now  crowned  by  a  beautifully 
situated  temple  known  as  the  Pai  Ti  Cheng,  or  Citadel  of 
the  White  Emperor. 

A  plausible  explanation  of  the  evil  condition  into  which 
the  means  of  intercommunication  in  China  have  fallen, 
while  traces  of  better  roads  having  existed  in  former  times 
are  still  everywhere  visible,  is  the  intentional  neglect  of 
the  present  dynasty  in  view  of  their  precarious  hold  on 
the  country  after  the  successful  dash  on  Peking  made  by 
their  founder  in  the  early  part  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
Being  so  few  in  number  and  with  an  immense  hostile 
population  which  it  needed  the  space  of  two  reigns  com- 
pletely to  subdue,  the  Manchus,  it  is  said,  purposely 
allowed  the  fine  roads  which  the  country  owed  to  the 
previous  dynasty,  the  Mings,  to  fall  into  utter  decay. 
Be  this  as  it  may,  no  system  of  maintaining  the  upkeep 
of  roads  exists  in  modern  China  and  hence  they  neces- 
sarily suffer  from  neglect  and  aggression  to  an  extent  that 
in  many  places  leads  to  their  complete  disappearance. 

The  range  of  not  very  lofty  but  extremely  rugged  and 
precipitous  mountains,  roughly  some  two  hundred 
miles  in  diameter,  that  separates  the  basin  of  Szechuan 


^   NEW    ROAD  119 

from  the  plains  of  Hupeh  is,  as  most  people  are  aware, 
pierced  alone  by  the  thread  of  the  Yangtse  river,  which 
has  found  or  cut  for  itself  a  comparatively  level  road, 
walled  in  by  lofty  cliffs  nearly  the  whole  distance.  This 
road  forms  the  main  channel  of  communication  between 
Eastern  and  Western  China.  But  it  is,  and  always  will 
remain,  a  dangerous  road  as  long  as  the  vessels  that  navi- 
gate its  foaming  torrent  are  confined  to  the  weak  power 
of  human  muscle  for  their  means  of  propulsion  and  are 
dependent  for  their  safety  on  the  strength  of  a  plaited 
tow-line.  Accidents  are  consequently  of  frequent  occur- 
rence, and  though  the  loss  of  life  amongst  passengers 
may  not  be  serious,  that  amongst  the  trackers  is  truly 
appalling,  a  "  slip  "  from  the  almost  vertical  cliffs  or  from 
the  huge,  jagged  rocks  amidst  which  they  painfully  climb 
their  way,  harnessed  to  a  five-hundred-yard  tow-line, 
proving  seldom  other  than  fatal  to  life  or  limb,  as  we  have 
too  frequently  ourselves  had  occasion  to  notice.  Owing 
to  the  vast  and  rapid  changes  that  occur  in  the  level  of 
the  river,  the  extremes  being  as  much  as  200  feet,  no  per- 
manent towing  path  can  be  built,  and  thus,  hereabouts, 
in  the  summer  season,  when  the  current  runs  strong, 
eight  to  ten  miles  is  a  good  day's  journey  ;  and  such  day's 
journeys  as  these  are  not  seldom  interrupted  by  a  fort- 
night's rest,  when  the  vessel,  having  grazed  a  sunken  rock, 
is  hauled  aside  for  repair  before  she  is  able  to  resume 
her  voyage. 

The  Chinese  authorities,  with  whom  of  course  rests  the 
initiative  of  any  change,  would  doubtless  have  resisted 
any  improvement  as  keenly  and  as  successfully  as  they 
did  the  recent  proposed  introduction  of  steam  on  this 
route,  but  for  the  unfortunate  drowning  some  ten  years 
ago  of  two  of  the  sons  of  one  of  their  number.  As  for 
England  the  immolation  of  a  Railway  Director  was  said 
to  be  necessary  in  order  to  compel  the  introduction  of  an 
improved  brake,  so  the  wreck  and  loss  of  a  mandarin 
junk  with  its  occupants  was  the  least  that  could  turn  the 
attention  of  the  local  officials  to  the  improvement  of 


120  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

means  of  communication  in  China.  The  late  General 
Pao,  or  Pao-chao  as  he  was  generally  called,  was  one 
of  the  celebrities  of  the  Taiping  rebellion,  in  the  suppression 
of  which  he  filled  one  of  the  leading  parts.  He  had  been 
rewarded  with  the  command  at  Kwei-chow  Fu,  or,  as  it  is 
commonly  termed  to  distinguish  it  from  the  Kweichow 
in  Hupeh,  Kwei-fu,  the  great  frontier  city  of  Szechuan, 
where  his  spacious  yamen  is  still  a  conspicuous  feature 
in  the  landscape.  The  loss  of  his  family,  which,  however, 
he  did  not  long  survive,  led  to  the  resuscitation  of  the  old 
project  of  a  land  road  through  the  gorges,  in  the  construc- 
tion of  which  there  were  no  insuperable  natural  difficulties 
to  be  surmounted,  although  the,  in  China,  more  formidable 
question  of  how  to  provide  the  ways  and  means  still 
remained  to  be  met.  Ultimately  the  Governors  of  the 
two  provinces  concerned,  Szechuan  and  Hupeh,  appear 
to  have  agreed  to  make  the  road,  each  province  building 
its  own  portion.  The  total  distance  from  Ichang  to  Kwei- 
chow Fu  is  in  actual  longitude  a  hundred  miles,  which 
with  the  windings  round  the  ravines  probably  makes  the 
distance  to  be  traversed  by  the  new  road  little  less  than 
200  miles.  Of  this  about  sixty  miles  make  up  the  distance 
from  Kwei-fu  to  the  frontier  and  fall  to  the  charge  of 
Szechuan  ;  leaving  the  balance  of  140  miles  to  be  con- 
structed by  the  Hupeh  authorities. 

The  Szechuan  portion  of  the  road  was  successfully 
completed  in  1890,  but  no  beginning  has  yet  been  made 
on  the  Hupeh  portion,  and  thus  the  road  terminates  on 
the  brink  of  the  almost  inaccessible  ravine  which  marks 
the  boundary.  Down  this  ravine  passes  a  mountain  burn 
named  Pien  Ue  Chi  (Bream  Stream),  which  breaks  the 
south  side  of  the  wild  Wushan  Gorge  about  20  miles  from 
its  upper  (western)  end. 

In  the  Chinese  Gazetteer  the  distances  are  given  as  435 
li  from  Ichang  to  the  boundary,  and  as  195  li  from  the 
boundary  to  Kwei-fu,  making  the  total  distance 
through  the  gorges  630  li  or  (at  3  li  to  the  mile)  210  statute 
miles.     It  is  curious  thus  to  see  a  solidly  built  road 


A    NEW    ROAD  121 

winding  along  the  face  of  these  desolate,  uninhabited 
mountains,  and  still  more  curious  to  note  its  abrupt 
termination  high  up  the  hill  side  on  the  edge  of  an  impass- 
able ravine ;  but  the  traveller,  wearied  with  ten  days  or  a 
fortnight's  confinement  to  his  boat,  welcomes  its  appear- 
ance as  giving  him  at  last  the  chance  of  a  walk  without 
having  to  stumble  over  rocks  or  climb  mountain  slopes 
that  nothing  but  goats  and  trackers  (and  these  latter 
often  come  to  grief)  can  hope  to  traverse  with  impunity. 
His  pleasure  is  only  somewhat  marred  by  regrets  that  the 
work,  which  when  completed  would  do  away  with  the 
necessity  of  a  boat  altogether,  is  still  only  half  begun,  and 
by  the  information  received  in  Ichang  that  there  is  no 
immediate  prospect  of  beginning  the  Hupeh  portion,  for 
want  of  the  two  and  a  half  millions  of  taels  which  it  is 
estimated  to  cost.  The  Szechuan  portion  is  said  to  have 
cost  900,000  taels,  being  at  the  rate  of  15,000  taels  per 
mile,  which  seems  an  excessive  figure  for  the  actual  work 
done. 

Having  in  May,  1892,  had  the  opportunity  of  walking 
ourselves  over  the  completed  portion  of  the  road,  as  also 
often  since  then,  we  are  able  to  place  on  record  the  result  of 
our  personal  inspection  of  this  work,  which,  apart  from 
its  intrinsic  value  to  travellers  on  the  spot,  possesses  an 
interest  to  distant  students  of  Chinese  polity,  in  its 
exhibition  of  native  methods  of  procedure  where  public 
works  are  in  question. 

We  climbed  up  to  the  road  for  the  first  time  near  Pei- 
shih,  which  is  the  first  inhabited  spot  come  to  after  crossing 
the  Szechuan  frontier.  Pei-shih  is  a  straggling  village, 
adorned  with  a  gaudy  joss-house,  built  on  a  ledge  of 
limestone  rock  just  out  of  reach  of  the  summer  freshets — 
about  a  hundred  feet  above  the  present  level.  The  descent 
from  this  ledge  to  the  water  is  vertical,  but  behind  the 
hills  open  out  a  little  and  are  accessible  to  sparse  cultiva- 
tion. Above,  the  cliffs  resume  their  sway  and  the  double 
walls  of  the  gorge  close  in  upon  the  narrowed  river.  Here 
the  new  road  has  been  blasted  out  of  the  cliff  side,  the 


122  GLEANINGS    FROM   CHINA 

holes  drilled  for  the  charges  of  gunpowder  being  visible 
all  along.  The  pathway  is  from  five  to  six  feet  wide  and 
the  recess  of  which  it  forms  the  floor  about  8  feet  high. 
The  smaller  side  gullies  are  mostly  dammed  with  masonry, 
over  which  the  path  leads  at  right  angles  to  the  inter- 
mittent flow  of  the  stream  across  it.  The  larger  gullies 
and  those  with  permanent  waterfalls  are  solidly  bridged 
by  lofty  bridges  mostly  lo  feet  in  width  on  top. 

Where  the  gullies  are  too  wide  at  their  mouths  to  be 
conveniently  bridged  over  at  the  points  where  the  road 
should  otherwise  cross  them,  the  path  turns  inland  and 
ascends,  in  some  cases  several  hundred  feet,  and  by  stair- 
cases of  solid  masonry,  till  a  narrow  crossing  is  reached. 
Wherever  there  is  room  to  squeeze  them  in,  and  in  many 
spots  where  there  is  no  room  except  by  encroaching  on 
the  road  itself,  the  enterprising  native  has  run  up  odori- 
ferous resting-places  to  serve  the  weary  traveller,  analogous 
to  the  tea  houses  in  Japan  in  the  wants  they  are  supposed 
to  fill,  but  as  repellent  to  the  sensitive  Western  in  their 
dirt  and  squalor  as  these  latter  are  attractive  by  their 
neatness  and  brightness  and  their  cheery  inhabitants. 
But  so  far  the  expected  travellers  have  not  appeared,  and 
the  first  question  we  were  asked,  when  after  having 
watched  for  an  accessible  spot  and  climbing  up  from  our 
boat  two  hundred  feet  over  a  "  chute  "  of  huge  rock 
fragments,  we  mounted  on  to  the  road  above,  was  "  When 
is  the  Hupeh  road  going  to  be  built  ?  "  The  proprietor 
had  laid  himself  out  for  the  coming  traffic  by  erecting  a 
substantial  one-storied  cottage  of  mud-concrete  walls- 
with  tiled  roof,  a  staircase  up  to  the  front  door  and 
an  open  basement  with  the  mountain  side  forming  its 
steep  floor  for  a  goat  and  cow  house, — not  so  very  unlike 
an  Italian  peasant  farm-house  in  principle,  however  widely 
removed  from  it  in  solidity  and  spaciousness.  This  pro- 
prietor was  still  awaiting  the  reward  of  his  enterprise 
with  a  patience  that  makes  the  Chinaman's  chief  force. 
And  hundreds  more  shanty  proprietors  and  vendors  of 
tea,  wine  and  opium  along  the  new  road  were  in  the  same 


A    NEW    ROAD  123 

position.  Every  available  corner  was  being  taken  up, 
yet  in  our  walks  along  this  road  through  the  two  gorges 
it  traverses,  the  Wu-shan  and  the  Feng-hiang,  we  only 
met  altogether  six  persons. 

The  "  people  "  are  enterprising  enough,  but  the  feeble- 
ness of  the  upper  and  governing  classes  where  any  inno- 
vation is  in  question  is  beyond  belief,  yet  it  is  the  people 
who  are  put  forward  as  the  scapegoat  when  any  foreign 
improvement  is  to  be  resisted.  Did  not  the  people,  five 
years  ago,  ask  every  foreigner  then  travelling  on  the 
Upper  Yangtse,  "  When  are  your  steamers  coming  ?  " 
And  if  the  steamer  had  come  would  it  not  have  been 
received  with  the  same  curiosity  and  respect  that  was 
shown  to  the  first  steamer  on  the  Lower  Yangtse  when  it 
arrived  in  Hankow  31  years  since  ?  Assuredly  it  would, 
though  certain  "  vested  interests  "  might  have  tempora- 
rily suffered,  as  they  have  indeed  already  by  the  imposition 
of  the  Foreign  Customs  in  Chungking,  than  which  no 
greater  blow  to  the  conservative  interests  of  the  officials 
in  the  riverside  towns  between  the  new  port  and  Ichang 
could  have  been  given.  Quis  cum  ita  sint  {as  our  Latin 
grammar  used  to  say),  there  is  no  doubt  this  new  "Cor- 
niche  "  road  would  prove  an  unmixed  boon  should  it 
ever  be  completed.  The  question  is,  will  it  ever  be  com- 
pleted ? 

Towards  the  upper  end  of  the  Wu-shan  Gorge  (25  miles 
long),  while  the  mountains  on  the  left  bank  continue  ver- 
tical— being  so  steep,  says  the  native  Gazetteer,  that  there 
is  not  even  resting-place  for  a  bird  or  foothold  for  a  monkey 
— the  country  opens  out  a  little  on  the  right  bank,  making 
room  for  snug  villages  ensconced  in  bamboo  and  Hoang-ko 
groves  with  lilliputian  paddy-fields  terraced  up  the  ravines. 
It  was  not  to  be  expected  that  the  thrifty  farmer  would 
look  on  with  patience  at  a  high-road  of  the  extravagant 
width  of  full  five  feet  meandering  through  his  fields,  and 
thus,  notwithstanding  that  the  considerate  builders  of 
the  road  had  narrowed  it  from  the  useless  contract  width 
of  ten  feet  (one  Chinese  chang)  down  to  the  five  feet  whicli 


124  GLEANINGS   FROM    CHINA 

is  the  actual  width  of  the  major  portion,  no  sooner  were 
their  backs  turned  than  he  commenced  to  set  it  right ; 
and  to  such  good  purpose  has  he  worked  during  the  two 
years  that  the  road  has  been  in  existence,  that  he  has  now 
brought  it  between  the  paddy-fields  down  to  the  sensible 
width  of  twelve  inches  {sic),  English  measurement ! 

At  Wu-shan,  the  first  Szechuan  city  reached  on  the 
upward  journey,  the  road  crosses  to  the  left  bank  ;  that 
is,  it  stops  short  high  up  on  one  bank  and  recommences 
a  mile  or  two  off  on  the  opposite  bank,  leaving  the 
traveller  to  "  make  his  connections  "  in  the  way  that 
suits  him  best.  We  formed  ours  by  scrambling  with  no 
little  difficulty  down  the  steep  bank,  rendered  slippery 
by  heavy  rain  in  the  night,  and  sitting  on  the  rocks  by 
the  river  side  in  the  hot  sun  a  couple  of  hours,  shouting 
for  a  boat  to  cross  in — our  own  houseboat  having  gone  on 
to  the  city  without  us.  Wu-shan  is  a  picturesque  walled 
city  built  on  a  projecting  spur  of  the  lofty  Tangtai 
Shan,  whose  snowy  peaks  in  winter  form  an  admirable 
background. 

This  "  Terrace  of  the  Sun  "  appeared  in  May  a  patch- 
work of  purple  fields  just  sown  with  maize,  mixed  with 
the  yellow  stubble  of  the  lately  reaped  barley,  while  its 
many  groves  and  temples  were  indistinguishable  in  the  dis- 
tance. When  we  at  last  succeeded  in  crossing  the  river, 
we  found  that  the  city  of  Wu-shan,  so  nobly  situated, 
commanding  the  entrance  of  its  Great  Gorge,  is  best 
seen  from  afar.  A  near  acquaintance  shows  it  to  be  as 
ruinous,  dilapidated,  and  generally  poverty-stricken  in 
appearance  as  seem  most  Chinese  cities  that  have  not 
been  touched  with  the  magic  wand  of  "  Western  "  enter- 
prise. From  here  to  the  entrance  of  the  next  gorge,  a 
distance  of  twenty-five  miles,  the  country  being  more 
open,  the  road  is  a  simple  affair,  being  merely  an  improve- 
ment of  the  old  Chinese  path,  built  up  with  masonry 
here  and  there  where  it  crosses  a  ravine,  but  unpaved 
for  the  most  part  except  in  places  where  it  rises  and 
falls  :   in  these  the  outside  edge  of  the  long  shallow  steps 


A    NEW    ROAD  125 

was  generally  faced  with  stone.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  the 
road  was  being  steadily  encroached  upon  both  by  farmers 
and  innkeepers. 

At  the  entrance  of  the  Feng-hiang  (Bellows)  Gorge,  so 
named  by  the  boat  people  from  a  prominent  stalactite 
on  its  walls,  or  as  it  is  more  poetically  called  in  the  Gazet- 
teer, the  Kii-tang  Hsia — the  "  fearsome  pool  "  gorge — 
ten  miles  below  Kwei-fu  the  road  rounds  the  corner  at  a 
point  whence  a  stone  would  drop  perpendicularly  200  feet 
into  the  river  below,  and  a  startlingly  wild  and  romantic 
view  meets  the  pedestrian's  gaze.  The  river  winds  like 
a  thread  between  vertical  limestone  cliffs  which  render 
it  impassable  for  junks  without  the  help  of  a  fair  wind — 
for  which,  however,  they  have  seldom  more  than  a  day  or 
two  to  wait.  The  road  being  within  a  few  miles  (ten)  of 
its  starting-point — Kwei-kwan — is  the  best  built  portion  ; 
It  is  six  feet  wide  with  eight  feet  head-room  and — boon 
to  giddy  climbers — has  actually  a  parapet  a  foot  high.  It 
goes  up  and  down  by  long  flights  of  steps  in  a  most 
extraordinary  way  ;  at  one  point  rising  500  feet  or  more 
above  the  river.  On  the  morning  we  started  to  traverse 
it,  we  ordered  our  boat,  which  was  sailing  on  with  a  fair 
wind,  to  await  us  at  the  foot  of  the  White  Emperor's 
Citadel  just  beyond  the  upper  end  of  the  gorge,  and 
started  gaily  on  our  seven  miles'  walk.  At  last,  as  the 
sun  began  to  get  oppressively  hot  and  we  were  longing 
to  be  back  in  our  boat  for  breakfast,  we  were  gladdened 
by  the  sight  of  the  "  Citadel  "  crowning  a  hill  in  front  of  us, 
from  which  we  were  only  separated  by  a  steep  ravine,  down 
the  side  of  which  we  now  descended  by  the  fine  stone 
staircase  of  the  new  road. 

On  reaching  the  bottom,  what  was  our  surprise  and 
disgust  to  find  ourselves  landed  on  the  high  muddy  bank 
of  a  wide,  rapidly  flowing  affluent  of  the  Great  River,  which 
could  neither  be  forded  nor  swum  over  :  it  had  cut  itself 
a  deep  channel  through  perpendicular  banks  impossible 
to  descend.  Two  native  pedestrians  who  were  following 
in  our  track  seemed  equally  surprised  with  ourselves  to 


126  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

find  no  bridge,  and  indeed  we  were  all  of  us  nonplussed. 
Our  native  companions  started  to  walk  up  the  valley  to 
find  a  bridge  said  to  exist  ten  li  (3  miles)  higher  up,  while 
we  re-ascended  the  hill  to  a  small  temple,  the  priest  of 
which  showed  us  a  steep  zigzag  path  down  to  the  Yangtse, 
and  put  us  in  the  way  of  hiring  a  boat.  We  thus  ulti- 
mately got  across,  and  after  scrambling  for  some  distance 
over  a  rough  mountain  path  on  the  other  side  eventually 
reached  our  boat  two  hours  late  for  breakfast.  A  high, 
light  suspension  bridge  is  what  is  wanted  here.  Will 
some  wealthy  "  barbarian  "  immortalise  himself  by 
providing  it?  Such  an  exhibition  of  "benevolence" 
might  do  more  to  make  our  Christian  civilization 
appreciated  than  all  the  "  Missions  "  in  China  together 
have  yet  succeeded  in  effecting.  It  would  be  in  accord- 
ance with  Chinese  usage ;  unfortunately  it  is  not  in 
accordance  with  ours. 

Were  the  new  road  completed,  travellers,  either  by  chair 
or  pony,  could  get  through  the  gorges  from  Ichang  to 
Kwei-fu  in  a  week  and  without  danger.  In  May,  in  a 
light  boat,  the  journey  took  us  thirteen  days,  and  we 
overtook  a  passenger  boat  that  had  started  four  days 
before  us.  In  July  a  month  is  sometimes  spent  over 
this  portion  of  the  journey — the  difficulties  of  which  may 
be  realised  by  the  fact  that  in  the  time  of  the  summer 
floods  these  600  li  occupy  nearly  as  much  time  to  get 
over  as  the  1,200  li  that  remain  to  be  traversed  from 
Kwei-fu  to  Chungking.     But  will  it  ever  be  completed  ? 

As  we  said  before,  the  new  road  is  already  being  attacked 
by  the  rust  and  moth  that  corrupt  and  the  thieves  that 
break  through  and  steal  in  the  shape  of  squatters  and 
farmers  ;  let  alone  its  natural  enemies — floods  and  land- 
slips. Even  in  the  finest  part  of  the  road  in  the  Bellows 
Gorge  the  levelled  terrace  ready  to  hand  was  too  tempting 
for  a  farmer  to  resist.  He  had  carefully  spread  a  layer 
of  soil  over  one-third  of  its  width,  embanked  the  same 
with  a  loose  stone  wall,  and  planted  in  the  space  so 
acquired  two  rows  of  thriving  maize,  while,  as  we  noted 


U 


A    NEW    ROAD  127 

before,  tea  houses  were  springing  up  in  every  vacant 
angle.  A  great  effort  seems  at  intervals  to  bring  about 
some  useful  and  long-needed  public  work  in  China,  and 
the  effort  once  brought  to  accomphsh  the  object,  all 
further  interest  in  it  ceases.  No  funds  are  provided 
for  repairs  and  maintenance  and  no  guardians  exist  or 
are  appointed  to  save  such  a  work,  when  once  constructed, 
from  the  selfish  rapacity  of  individuals.  Hence  one  of 
the  great  questions  for  future  visitors  to  and  residents 
at  the  now  open  but,  at  the  same  time,  most  inaccessible 
treaty  port  of  Chungking  is — Will  the  present  portion  of 
the  road  thither  decay  before  the  remainder  is  built  ? 


A   CHINESE   SULPHUR    BATH 

Twenty  miles  south  of  Chungking  the  range  of  mountains, 
that  shields  the  eastern  face  of  Szechuan's  commercial 
centre,  harbours  a  sequestered  valley,  in  the  floor  of  which 
bubble  up  the  hot  springs  called  by  the  Chinese  Wen-tang. 
Having  never  visited  a  Chinese  inland  watering-place, 
we  thought  that  a  Christmas  visit  to  the  Wen-tang  would 
form  a  pleasant  outing  for  the  holidays,  and  accordingly, 
packing  up  our  beds  and  a  change  of  clothing,  we  set  out 
one  Christmas  Eve  to  make  the  journey.  Crossing  the 
great  river  by  the  ferry  to  Hai-tan-chi,  a  long  straggling 
village  composed  of  a  narrow,  winding  street  of  steep 
stone  steps,  the  terminus  of  the  Great  Kwei-chow  Road, 
we  ascended  a  thousand  feet  to  the  pass  of  "  Hoang-ko 
Ya  "  (Banian  Gap),  so  called  from  a  group  of  magnificent 
Ficus  infedoria  shading  the  last  few  hundred  yards  of  the 
winding  stone  staircase,  that  leads  to  the  summit  of  the 
gap,  a  thousand  feet  above  the  river.  And  leaving  on 
our  left  the  beautifully-wooded  peak  of  Lao-chiin-tung, 
with  its  groups  of  halls  and  temples,  rising  in  terraces  one 
behind  the  other  (commemorating  some  say  the  retreat 
in  this  spot  of  the  philosopher  Lao-tze,  600  b.c),  we  tra- 
versed the  Straszendorf,  the  narrow,  covered-in  street 
of  which  forms  the  first  halting-place  for  travellers  bound 
from  Chungking  to  the  south.  This  pass  leads  into  an 
upland  valley,  bounded  on  the  east  by  another  and  loftier 
pine-clad  range,  its  floor,  here  half  a  mile  wide,  terraced 
into  an  endless  succession  of  paddy-fields,  now  clad  in 
their  winter  garb  of  stagnant,  but  clear  water ;  their  banks 
green  with  bean  plants  just  beginning  to  flower. 

128 


A    CHINESE    SULPHUR    BATH  129 

The  backbone  of  all  these  mountain  ranges  is  limestone, 
but  their  flanks  are  rich  with  tilted  layers  of  red  Szechuan 
sandstone.  The  great  highway  leads  us  by  a  gentle, 
almost  imperceptible  descent  down  the  valley  some  six 
miles  to  the  thickly  built  market  town  of  Lao-chang  (old 
market)  ;  another  market  town  (called  Shin-chang,  or 
new  market)  lying  up  the  valley  side  facing  Hoang-ko-ya. 
Here  the  main  road  crosses  the  valley  on  a  raised  cause- 
way, the  path  being  from  four  to  six  feet  wide  and  well 
paved  with  hard  and  slippery  limestone  blocks,  and  shortly 
afterwards  ascends  the  second  range,  passing  out  into  the 
country  beyond  and  over  the  loftier  mountains,  whose 
crests  form  the  boundary  of  the  two  provinces  and  whose 
blue  forms  are  just  visible  in  the  distance  on  a  clear  sum- 
mer's day.  But  at  this  winter  time  everything  is  en- 
shrouded in  mist  and  haze,  and  we  make  our  way  through 
a  light  fog  in  calm  and  refreshing  coolness. 

At  Lao-chang  we  lunched  in  the  usual  open  restaurant 
and  hemmed  in  by  the  usual  curious  crowd.  Our  path 
hence  kept  on  straight  down  the  valley  and,  as  this 
narrowed  in,  it  commenced  to  ascend,  leading  along  the 
side  of  very  steep  hills.  This  ascent,  so  contrary  to 
expectation,  together  with  the  absence  of  any  stream  in 
the  valley,  gave  proof  of  underground  drainage,  direct 
evidence  of  which  was  given  later  in  the  sinks  in  the 
valley  floor  and  in  a  high  ridge  entirely  shutting  in 
its  lower  end.  The  country  assumed  the  wild  aspect  of 
the  pure  limestone  regions,  nothing  but  huge  ridges  of 
forbidding,  dark  grey  rock  cropping  up,  wave  upon  wave, 
in  almost  vertically  tilted  strata  with,  at  first  sight,  not 
a  sign  of  man  or  of  vegetation.  But  a  closer  inspection, 
when  the  strata  were,  so  to  say,  enfiladed  by  the  vision, 
brought  to  light  row  behind  row  of  the  jagged,  dockweed- 
like  shoots  of  the  young  poppy  plants,  sown  in  November, 
and  then  just  appearing  above  the  scant  soil  collected 
between  the  strata  and  painfully  supplemented  by  manure 
transported  from  the  nearest  town.  After  a  stretch  of 
this  barren  land  (as  it  would  be,  peopled  by  any  other 


130  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

than  Chinese)  the  beauty  of  the  valley  returned  ;  the 
heights  were  crowned  with  thickets  of  dwarf  oak,  palms 
and  the  Ficus,  level  fields  of  poppy  in  the  valley  floor 
and  smiling  farmsteads  on  the  hillsides  surrounded  by 
groves  of  evergreens.  Our  path,  just  wide  enough  for 
the  pony  to  keep  his  footing,  was  cut  out  of  the  steep 
hillside  and,  being  comparatively  level,  was  now  very 
pleasant  going  ;  the  walls  of  the  cutting  were  decked 
with  maidenhair  fern  and  many  pink  wild  flowers.  So 
on  about  five  miles,  till  the  valley  ended  in  a  ridge,  upon 
reaching  the  summit  of  which  the  ground  fell  steeply 
away  from  us  and  we  entered  the  vale  of  the  Wen-tang. 

A  breakneck  descent  by  the  roughest  of  paths  paved 
with  loose  fragments  of  limestone,  for  about  five  hundred 
feet,  brought  us  at  length  in  view  of  a  winding  stream  of 
blue  water  crossed  by  a  very  solid  and  handsome  three- 
arched  bridge,  beyond  which  a  well-paved  wide  roadway 
led  to  the  pavilion-covered  gateway  of  a  small,  closely- 
packed  village  nestling  amidst  the  steepest  of  hills  in  this 
romantic  and  sequestered  valley,  apparently  shut  off 
from  all  communication  with  the  outside  world  except  by 
the  most  impracticable  of  mountain  paths.  The  pine- 
clad  peaks  were  half  hidden  in  clouds  and  the  valley  itself 
was  full  of  fog,  increased  by  the  clouds  of  steam  from 
the  hot  springs.  We  crossed  the  bridge,  entered  the  dirty 
village — a  sort  of  Chinese  Ashinoyu  ^ — and  put  up  in  the 
best  room  of  the  best  inn,  i.e.,  in  the  corner  of  a  fairly 
clean  barn  full  of  people. 

The  bath  was  close  alongside,  and  we  immediately 
gratified  our  curiosity  as  to  what  a  renowned  Chinese 
"  bath  "  might  be  like,  and,  expecting  nothing  but  dirt, 
were  agreeably  disappointed  and  did  not  hesitate  to 
take  a  plunge  at  once  in  the  common  pool  ;  and  most 
refreshing  we  found  it,  though  uncomfortably  hot. 
The  bath  is  walled  in  and  has  a  high  tiled  roof  ;  it  is 
divided  into  two  basins,  one  for  men  and  one  for  women, 

1  Ashinoyu  is  the  most  frequented  sulphur  bath  in  Japan. — 

A.  E.  N.  L. 


A    CHINESE    SULPHUR    BATH  131 

that  for  men  being  about  thirty  feet  square  and  the  water 
about  three  feet  deep.  Two  sides  of  the  basin  are  formed 
of  the  natural  rugged  Hmestone  rock,  such  as  would  be  a 
fine  attraction  in  a  Shanghai  garden,  while  on  two  sides 
are  wide-cut  steps,  most  agreeable  for  entering  the  water 
and  standing  upon.  Like  everything  of  the  kind  in 
China,  the  bath  is  free  to  all.  Two  or  three  boys  and  men 
were  in  the  water  on  this  evening,  but  there  is  such  a 
large  inflow  of  water  and  the  bath  is  consequently  kept 
so  constantly  changed  that  we  had  no  hesitation  in  joining 
the  native  bathers.  The  water  is  transparent,  but  smells 
strongly  of  sulphur. 

We  could  not  see  the  inflow,  which  is  below  the  surface, 
but  judging  by  the  large  stream  that  flows  out,  the  supply 
of  water  is  practically  unlimited,  and  the  natives 
informed  us  that  the  flow  was  the  same  winter  and 
summer.  A  temple  adjoins  the  bath,  and  large  stone 
tablets,  their  inscriptions  no  longer  legible,  tell  of  its 
establishment.  No  natural  phenomenon  in  China  is 
without  its  thankoffering  to  the  Unseen,  and  this  pious 
feeling,  so  prominent  in  Szechuan,  how  will  it  fare  in 
the  face  of  the  present  active  propaganda  of  a  foreign 
creed  ?  Possibly  if  it  succeeds  China  will  be  civilised 
a  I'Americaine,  where  almost  every  natural  beauty  and 
gift  of  Heaven  is  monopolised  by  the  "  Christian " 
speculator,  and  so  none  but  those  whose  pockets  are  lined 
with  dollars  can  partake  of  them  !  But  in  this  "  heathen  " 
country,  here  in  the  west  of  China,  religion  enters  into  the 
life  of  the  people  and  is  not  a  coat  to  be  put  on  and  off 
according  to  circumstance.  Hence  such  a  thing  as  a  tolled 
bridge  or  a  tolled  road  is  abhorrent  to  the  so-called 
"  heathen,"  while  everywhere  the  poor  have  free  ferries 
(and  here  in  Chungking,  throughout  the  winter,  free  rice) 
and,  if  they  need  it,  free  lodging  as  well  at  their  disposal. 
Nor  do  vast  private  enclosures  cut  off  the  hill-tops  from  the 
tourist  as  in  many  of  the  most  picturesque  mountain 
regions  in  Britain.  Here  everything  is  open,  as  sports- 
men well  know,  and  liberty  to  enjoy  is  free  to  all. 


132  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Close  by  is  a  vast  limestone  grotto,  out  of  which  flows 
a  river  of  pure,  cold  water,  a  gilded  shrine  to  the  Goddess 
of  Mercy  again  decorating  the  entrance.  One  can  pene- 
trate a  distance  of  fifty  yards  with  the  aid  of  candles,  at 
which  distance  a  barrier,  placed  for  safety,  prevents 
further  ingress.  But  the  greatest  sight  in  the  neighbour- 
hood, in  Chinese  eyes,  is  the  country  seat  of  a  certain  Peng 
who,  eighty  years  ago,  built  himself  a  lordly  pleasure  house 
in  a  neighbouring  valley,  a  couple  of  miles  distant.  The 
vast  extent  of  the  buildings  and  gardens  and  their  fabulous 
cost  caused  him  to  be  regarded  as  a  wizard  [yao-kwei)  ; 
absolute  proof  of  the  fact  was  given  by  himself,  so  the 
country  people  say,  by  his  having  bathed  every  morning 
in  cold  water.  To  visit  this  celebrated  country  seat, 
called  Peng-ho-lin,  we  ascended  the  valley  of  the  Wen-tang 
River  up  a  path  climbing  along  the  side  of  a  romantic, 
wooded  glen,  the  bottom  of  which  is  filled  by  the  river 
falling  in  a  series  of  cascades  down  steps  of  the  here  almost 
vertical  limestone  strata  that  form  its  bed.  Thus  the 
walk  to  Peng-ho-lin  was  delightful  in  the  extreme,  but 
the  place  itself  hardly  worth  a  long  journey  to  visit.  The 
redoubtable  wizard  departed  this  life  some  thirty  years 
ago,  and  the  elaborate  palace  and  gardens  have  been  going 
to  decay  ever  since.  The  magnificent  lotus  pond  before 
the  entrance,  about  an  acre  in  extent,  had  been  converted 
into  a  paddy-field.  The  wide  stone  terrace  before  the 
entrance  was  falling  down  in  places.  The  interior,  which 
reminds  one  of  the  buildings  that  go  to  form  a  first-class 
Buddhist  temple,  has  been  robbed  of  its  movable  wood- 
work ;  the  flower  beds  now  grow  cabbages.  In  the 
principal  flower  garden  the  curling  walls,  which  make 
a  sort  of  maze  to  traverse,  are  still  standing,  but  the 
wooden  pavilions  are  gone,  the  immovable  stone  seats 
and  tables  alone  remaining.  The  trees  are  there,  and  very 
fine  specimens,  but  we  were  ignorant  of  their  names. 
A  very  elegant  fir  with  feathery  foliage  was  called  by  the 
natives  mao  wei  sung,  or  "  cats'  tails  fir." 

Behind  the  buildings,  which,  we  were  told,  though  we 


A    CHINESE    SULPHUR    BATH  133 

did  not  count  them,  comprise  thirty-six  courtyards,  are 
fine  plantations  of  rare  and  beautiful  trees  running  up  to 
the  crest  of  the  hills,  which  form  the  background  of  the 
estate,  and  through  which  lead  charming  paved  walks 
traversable  in  all  weathers.  So  far,  these  trees  have 
happily  escaped  the  destroyer,  who  is  doing  his  best  to 
reduce  beautiful  Szechuan  to  the  desert,  into  which  he  has 
almost  succeeded  in  turning  the  provinces  on  its  northern 
frontiers. 

Thus  the  sights  which  it  is  de  rigeur  to  visit  were  soon 
exhausted,  and  the  following  day  we  trudged  back  in  a 
Scotch  mist,  which  wetted  us  to  the  skin,  dehghted 
with  our  Christmas  outing,  but  still  more  delighted  to 
get  back  into  a  decent  house  and  have  a  fire  to  dry  our 
clothes.  How  in  this  climate,  where  there  is  no  evapora- 
tion and  the  inns  are  reeking  with  perpetual  moisture, 
travellers  survive  wet  weather  can  be  attributed  only  to 
the  wonderful  hardihood  of  this  opium-smoking  race.  It 
would  kill  an  European,  and  hence  at  this  season  we  can 
hardly  venture  to  be  away  from  home  more  than  two  or 
three  days  at  a  time.  As  long  as  one  is  out  in  the  weather 
it  is  all  right,  but  the  trial  comes  in  the  long  winter  nights 
passed  in  damp,  leaky  sheds.  A  constant  procession  of 
travellers,  in  chairs,  mounted  and  on  foot,  throngs  this  the 
great  his^hway  to  Kweichow  and  Yunnan  in  all  weathers, 
all  apparently  perfectly  satisfied  with  the  accommodation 
provided.  Will  the  present  generation  of  Europeans  in 
China  ever  see  travel  in  China  made  more  comfortable, 
and  query,  if  it  were,  would  the  natives  be  any  happier 
than  they  are  now,  with  their  limited  wants  and  absence 
of  discontent  with  things  as  they  exist  ? 


THE    "NEW   RAPID"    IN   THE    UPPER 

YANGTSE    AND    THE    ARRIVAL    OF    THE 

FIRST   STEAMER   AT   CHUNGKING 

The  "  New  Rapid,"  as  it  is  now  called — although  the  old 
New  Rapid  in  Hupeh,  fifty  miles  above  I-chang,  stiU  goes 
by  that  name,  and  was, till  the  landslip  inYiin-yang  occurred 
in  September,  1896,  the  most  formidable  obstacle  on  the 
Upper  Yangtse — is  still  a  mighty  hindrance  to  the  trade 
of  Szechuan.  When  we  passed  through  it  on  February 
27,  i8g8,  in  the  little  steamer  Leechuen,  endeavouring  to 
show  the  way  to  the  larger  steamers  which  would  we  hoped 
ere  long  travel  between  I-chang  and  Chungking,  we  found 
327  junks  laid  up  in  the  reach  below  the  rapid,  waiting 
their  turn  to  ascend.  Coming  from  Yiin-yang  city  and 
rounding  the  point  which  opens  up  this  wide  reach,  we 
could  have  imagined  ourselves  entering  a  vast  and  pictur- 
esque land-locked  harbour  crowded  with  traffic.  The 
big  junks  which  carry  on  the  trade  with  Chungking, 
ranging  from  ten  to  130  tons'  burthen,  were  moored  along 
both  banks  for  a  distance  of  a  mile  or  more,  while  numbers 
of  sampans  and  small  boats  were  crossing  to  and  fro, 
ferrying  passengers  and  bearing  supplies  to  the  junks  and 
their  crews.  The  upper  junks  were  discharging  their 
cargoes  preparatory  to  being  towed  up,  and  gangs  of 
heavily  laden  coolies  were  groaning  under  bales  of  yarn 
and  Manchester  goods  as  they  laboured  along,  up  and 
down  the  steep  improvised  rock-paths  on  either  shore. 
The  river  valley  here  is  some  three  to  four  miles  wide, 
bounded  by  steep  mountains  :  below  these  are  rolling 
foot  hills,  formed  from  the  accumulations  of  their  detritus  ; 

134 


"  NEW  RAPID  "  IN  THE  UPPER  YANGTSE   135 

the  river  bottom  is  composed  of  a  hard  grey  sandstone  in 
which  the  river  has  cut  a  channel,  leaving  at  this  low- 
water  season  long  ridges  of  high,  flat-topped,  jagged  rock 
banks  between  which  the  water  sweeps  down  in  a  rapid 
current.  This  formation  extends  a  hundred  miles  or 
more  between  the  cities  of  Yiin-yang  ("  Clouded  Sun," — 
most  true  of  Szechuan)  and  Wan  (whence  I  now  write). 
These  flat  rock  banks  are  overflowed  from  May  to  Novem- 
ber, when  the  river  nearly  fills  its  valley  and  the  navigation 
becomes  dangerous.  It  was  over  this  rock-edge,  now 
standing  sixty  feet  above  the  water  level,  that  the  great 
landslip  of  foothills,  which  broke  bodily  away  from  the 
steep  mountain  ridge  behind  in  September,  1896,  on  the 
north  or  left  bank,  poured  its  mass  of  detritus,  comprising 
large,  angular  fragments  of  rock  with  intervening  stiff 
clay,  into  the  bay  which  formerly  occupied  the  spot  ; 
building  up  a  long  projecting  lofty  spit,  which  narrowed 
the  river  from  400  to  about  150  yards  :  in  one  night 
converting  a  tranquil  reach  into  a  furious  rapid,  with  a 
fall  of  ten  to  twelve  feet  in  a  distance  of  a  hundred  yards. 
A  reef  of  now  half-submerged  rocks  extends  diagonally 
across  the  channel  from  the  right  bank,  two-thirds  of  the 
way  towards  the  newly-form.ed  point,  greatly  adding  to 
the  danger  and  the  fury  of  the  rapid. 

I  wrote  from  this  spot,  exactly  a  year  before,  a  descrip- 
tion of  this  remarkable  phenomenon  and  of  the  efforts 
the  Chinese  were  then  making  to  cope  with  its  results. 
An  army  of  two  thousand  men  was  then  engaged  in  digging 
away  the  point,  stonemasons  cutting  up  the  larger  rock 
fragments  into  portable  pieces,  and  coolies  carrying  away 
loosened  earth  and  boulders,  which  they  emptied  into 
the  huge  whirlpool  that  filled  the  remains  of  the  bay  exca- 
vated by  the  river  below  the  rapid.  In  this  way  the  apex 
of  the  point  was  cut  back  last  year  some  150  feet  down 
to  the  lowest  winter  level  of  water,  widening  the  river  to 
that  extent  as  soon  as  a  rise  of  five  or  six  feet  enabled 
junks  to  track  through  the  new  channel  thus  formed.  The 
work  was  resumed  in  January,  1898,  under  the  scientific 


136  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

direction  of  the  engineers  detailed  for  the  work  at  the 
request,  it  appears,  of  the  Hupeh  and  Szechuan  authorities, 
— Messrs.  Tyler,  Grey  Donald,  and  Myers,  all  of  the  Light- 
house Department  of  the  Imperial  Maritime  Customs. 
These  gentlemen  are  hard  at  work  "  from  early  morn  to 
dewy  eve  "  on  both  banks  of  the  river  and  upon  the  reef 
in  midstream  as  well,  with  greatly  insuificient  appliances, 
such  as  could  be  picked  up  in  Shanghai  at  a  moment's 
notice,  a  limited  supply  of  dynamite,  insufficient  electrical 
apparatus,  and  inferior,  local-made  gunpowder.  Yet,  in 
the  short  time  they  have  been  here,  an  astonishing  deal  of 
work  has  been  done  ;  great  excavations  have  been  made 
in  the  point,  which  appeared  wider  and  higher  as  the  work 
advanced  ;  much  of  the  mid-reef  had  been  removed  and 
also  that  immediately  under  the  right  bank,  the  dhhris 
from  which  were  being  utilised  to  build  up  a  road  for 
trackers  under  the  cHff  which  lines  the  south  shore.  But 
their  job  appeared  unlikely  to  be  finished  in  the  course 
of  the  next  winter ;  over  two  million  cubic  feet  of  earth  and 
rock  had  yet  to  be  removed,  and  a  month  hence  the 
rise  in  the  river  would  again  stop  work  till  December. 

We  were  fortunate  on  the  evening  of  our  arrival  in  being 
present  to  witness  a  grand  dynamite  explosion  in  the  mid- 
way reef — the  conclusion  of  many  days'  previous  labours. 
Mines  had  been  laid  under  water  and  were  fired  from  a  boat 
moored  a  hundred  yards  higher  up  river,  with  which 
they  had  been  electrically  connected.  The  explosion  that 
took  place  resembled  a  small  volcanic  eruption,  showers 
of  rocks  splashing  into  the  glassy  expanse  of  smooth  water 
above  the  fall,  some  beyond  and  in  dangerous  proximity 
to  the  boat  in  which  Mr.  Tyler  operated  the  discharge. 
We  stood  safe  and  sound  high  up  on  the  bank  opposite 
and  enjoyed  a  finer  spectacle  than  that  of  the  explosion 
of  Hell  Gate,  which  I  witnessed  in  New  York,  twenty-two 
years  before.  There  spectators  were  not  allowed  to  come 
near  enough  to  see  more  than  a  low  column  thrown  up  and 
momentary  disturbance  in  the  sea  down  below  which  the 
reef  had  been  tunnelled. 


"  NEW  RAPID  "  IN  THE  UPPER  YANGTSE  137 

At  the  same  time,  in  the  ground  at  our  feet,  a  number 
of  small  gunpowder  explosions  were  going  on,  small  mines 
fired  by  time  fuses  and  destined  to  break  up  the  larger 
rock  fragments  which  the  day's  excavations  had  exposed 
into  manageable  proportions  for  removal  on  the  morrow. 
In  the  growing  dusk  the  rocks  crowned  by  flashes  of  flame 
and  small  columns  of  white  smoke  added  to  the  pictur- 
esqueness  of  the  naturally  romantic  scene.  The  loose 
stones  shot  forth  fell  so  slowly  that  it  was  not  difficult  to 
dodge  them  when  necessary. 

The  rapid  had  been  sensibly  modified  by  the  work  done 
during  the  previous  year,  especially  in  furnishing  a  path 
by  the  river  level  where  trackers  could  walk  with  the  three 
stay-lines  which  were  attached  inboard  to  every  junk 
towing  up,  to  prevent  her  taking  a  sheer  out  into  the  rapid. 
Stone  posts  had  been  driven  into  the  shore  at  intervals  for 
these  guy-ropes  to  be  made  fast  round  against  the  strain 
becoming  greater  than  the  men  could  bear.  The  rush  of 
water  and  the  huge  waves  were  a  striking  sight,  as  one 
thus  stood  close  upon  them,  watching  a  junk  hauled  up 
inch  by  inch  by  three  huge  bamboo  cables,  a  hundred 
men  to  each.  Farther  out  the  waves  frequently  swamped 
small  boats  so  venturesome  as  to  get  too  far  from  the 
shore,  the  laodahs  being  too  poor  or  too  thrifty  to  employ 
the  expert  local  pilots ;  yet  if  they  kept  too  near  in  they 
were  liable  to  be  caught  in  the  whirlpool  below.  Men  were 
drowned  here  nearly  every  day  ;  once  in  the  water  they 
went  down  like  stones,  and  Mr.  Grey  Donald  told  us  he  had 
seen  a  junk  standing  perpendicularly  end-up,  half  out  of 
water.  Hence  working  on  the  slippery  midway  reef  was 
ticklish  work  ;  if  a  man  lost  his  foothold  he  would  be 
gone  for  ever. 

Mr.  Bourne  last  year  estimated  the  loss  to  merchants 
importing  goods  into  Szechuan  at  2^  per  cent,  of  the  value 
in  porterage  and  wages  of  extra  trackers,  but  this  does  not 
include  the  money  loss  in  interest,  which  may  be  taken  as 
a  second  2^  per  cent.  Junks  are  detained  here  from  one 
to  three  months  and  some  never  get  over  at  all.     At 


138  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

present  five  to  six  big  junks  ascend  daily.  It  seems  im- 
possible, for  reasons  too  long  to  explain  here,  to  arrange 
for  one  set  of  junks  to  ply  below,  and  another  set  to  ply 
above  the  rapid,  and  interchange  cargoes,  which  would 
seem  to  solve  the  difficulty  with  comparative  ease.  It 
was  an  anxious  time  for  ourselves  as,  had  we  broken  loose, 
as  twice  happened  in  previous  rapids,  the  little  steamer 
could  never  have  lived  in  the  raging  surf  she  would  have 
had  to  pass  through  before  being  brought  up  ;  as  it  was 
we  snapped  one  of  our  tow  lines  at  a  critical  moment  : 
fortunately  the  other  two  held  and  we  got  over  in  safety, 
but  not  without  a  good  wetting. 

Mr.  Grey  Donald  told  us  that  he  had  seen  2,000  men 
towing  at  a  steamer  in  the  rapids  at  Wady  Haifa,  Egyp- 
tian soldiers,  sturdy  fellows,  each  of  whom  is  worth  three 
Chinese,  but  those  rapids  are  still  worse  than  these  and 
much  longer. 

We  drank  a  bumper  of  champagne  with  our  kind  friends 
when  happily  moored  in  the  slack  water  above,  after 
passing  through  this  haarstrauhend  rapid,  exchanged 
congratulations  and,  wishing  each  other  mutual  success 
in  our  respective  novel  undertakings,  went  on  our  way 
rejoicing. 

March  9,  Chungking.  We  are  just  ashore  after  a 
most  exciting  trip.  We  had  got  over  all  our  difficulties 
with  the  Lecchuen,  and  reached  Tang-chia-to,  the 
Customs  station  below  Chungking,  at  3  p.m.  yester- 
day, where  we  waited  by  the  request  of  the  Recep- 
tion Committee  till  9  a.m.  to-day,  when  the  foreign 
community  here  came  down  to  welcome  us,  and  we 
made  a  triumphal  entry  into  the  port  with  about  fifty 
people  on  board,  and  were  deluged  with  fire  crackers. 
The  Chinese  sent  half  a  dozen  gunboats  to  meet  us : 
we  had  an  unusually  fine  sunny  day,  and  it  was  a  pretty 
sight.  An  address  of  welcome  was  read,  signed  by  the 
whole  community,  including  the  British  Consul,  who, 
however,  did  not  put  in  an  appearance.  Thus  the  voyage, 
which  often  en  route  I  had  despaired  of  bringing  to  a 


"  NEW  RAPID  "  IN  THE  UPPER  YANGTSE  139 

successful  termination,  came  to  a  happy  end.  We  had 
had  to  wait  two  days  lower  down  river  while  we  sent  a 
messenger  overiand  for  coals  ;  we  came  on  with  only 
one  pump  since  February  28,  having  much  difficulty  in 
keeping  water  in  the  boiler. 

Four  days  back,  by  full  moon,  we  were  running  full 
speed  in  a  gorge  with  dead  slack  water,  apparently  unfath- 
omable, when  we  struck  on  a  sunken  rock  and  knocked  a 
hole  under  our  cabin  up  which  a  fountain  spurted  ;  nothing 
but  rock  walls  on  either  side.  Fortunately  I  noticed  a  little 
patch  of  sand  ahead,  and  beached  the  Leechuen  just  before 
the  fires  would  have  been  put  out.  We  baled  the  water 
out,  working  the  whole  night — our  steam  pump  is  only  a 
toy — patched  up  the  leak,  and  came  on  afterwards  at  half 
speed.  But  for  innumerable  accidents  we  should  have  done 
the  voyage  in  ten  days  instead  of  twenty,  but  Dei  gratia, 
we  are  now  happily  moored  in  this  port,  and  to-day's 
triumph  is  well  worth  our  previous  trouble. 

Till  this  steamboat  arrived  it  had  been  immemorial 
custom  for  the  crews  of  all  upward  bound  junks  to  return 
thanks  for  safe  deliverance  before  the  colossal  Buddha  by 
the  river  bank.  Copying  the  so-called  heathen  we  also 
had  a  little  thanksgiving  service  on  the  Customs  pontoon 
and  sang  the  Old  Hundredth  together  with  those  who 
came  to  welcome  us  before  going  ashore  and  receiving 
their  address.  1898. 


THE   DANGERS  OF  THE  UPPER  YANGTSE 

A  DESIRE  to  see  the  Upper  Yangtse  in  flood-time  induced 
us  to  venture  upon  a  voyage  from  Ichang  to  Kwei-fu  and 
on  to  Wan-hien,  traversing  the  four  great  gorges  and  the 
principal  rapids  at  a  season  when  few  care  to  brave  the 
perils  of  navigation.     The  up-river  trade  from  Ichang  to 
Chungking  practically  comes  to  a  stop  by  the  middle  of 
June,  and  is  not  resumed  before  the  middle  of  September 
or  later,  according  to  the  condition  of  the  river  and  the 
amount  of  rainfall  in  West  China.     Those  who,  in  the 
usual  course  of  travel,  have  ascended  the  Upper  Yangtse 
only  in  the  winter  season,  when  the  junk-traffic  is  at  its 
highest,  would  not  recognise  the  river  in  summer,  when  the 
freshets  have  come  down  and  entirely  changed  its  aspect, 
from  that  of  a  clear  mountain  stream,  interrupted  by  a 
series  of  falls  or  steps  with  long  smooth  reaches  between, 
to  that  of  a  huge  brown  torrent  entirely  fiUing  its  bed  and 
bounded  throughout  either  by  vertical  cliffs  or  by  steep 
mountain    slopes — rocks    all    submerged    "  full    fathoms 
five,"    and   deep   water   everywhere.     The   innumerable 
winter  rapids  are  either  obliterated  entirely  or  metamor- 
phosed into  swift  races  ;  a  rare  junk  is  seen  here  and  there 
sailing  up  in  the  eddies  and  long  backwaters,  or  creeping 
slowly,  towed  by  a  double  gang  of  trackers,  round  some 
awkward  point  ;  but  generally  the  river  appears  deserted, 
the  exuberant  life  and  animation  that  surround  the  rapids 
in  winter  have  entirely  vanished,  and  the  sleepiness  of 
summer  heat  appears  to  have  invaded  the  sparse  towns 
and  villages,  while  in  between,  for  days  at  a  time,  one 
might  imagine  one's  self  to  be  exploring  a  new  and  unin- 

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THE  DANGERS  OF  THE  UPPER  YANGTSE    141 

habited  country.  The  cause  of  this  cessation  of  traffic 
in  the  summer  season  is  not  so  much  the  danger  (that  from 
the  huge  whirlpools  is  really  serious)  which,  to  do  Chinese 
boatmen  justice,  would  hardly  prove  a  deterrent,  but 
the  expense  of  the  voyage  is  doubled  ;  heavier  crews  are 
needed,  and  these  have  to  be  paid  and  fed  for  two,  and 
sometimes  three  months  instead  of  one ;  correspondingly 
high  freights  have  to  be  paid,  and  this  again  deters  ship- 
pers ;  the  north-east  monsoon,  which  may  be  relied  upon 
to  provide  a  fair  wind  up  the  gorges  from  November  to 
April,  has  come  to  an  end  ;  without  a  fair  wind  parts  of  the 
gorges  are  actually  impassable  by  large  junks  relying  on 
man-power  alone,  and  they  may  in  summer  have  to  wait 
days  for  a  fair  wind.  To  sum  up,  in  short,  when  the 
Upper  Yangtse  is  navigable  by  steamers  it  is  unnavigable 
by  native  craft,  and  vice  versa  ;  to  the  observance  of  this 
condition  are  due  the  successful  voyages  of  the  steamship 
Pioneer  (now  metamorphosed  into  His  Majesty's  gun- 
vessel  Kinsha)  in  the  summer  of  1900  ;  and,  conversely, 
to  its  neglect  may  be  attributed  the  loss  of  the  German 
steamer  Sui-hsiang  in  the  month  of  December  in  the 
same  year. 

Our  voyage  up  the  rapids,  starting  on  June  14,  1901, 
occupied  roughly  as  many  days  as,  at  the  same  date  the 
year  before,  the  s.s.  Pioneer  occupied  hours  ;  thus  to  reach 
the  big  rapid,  the  "  Yeh-tan,"  about  60  miles  above  Ichang, 
took  us  six  days,  as  against  the  Pioneer's  eight  hours  on 
June  12,  1900.  We,  on  our  third  day  out,  passed  the 
Tungling  rapid,  35  miles  distant  from  Ichang,  on  the 
rocks  in  which  the  Sui-hsiang  was  wrecked  on  the  very 
morning  of  her  departure  from  Ichang.  This  "  pierced 
mountain  "  rapid  is  caused  by  the  outflow  from  the  Grand 
Mi-tan  gorge  passing  through  a  nest  of  rocks,  amidst  which 
in  winter  the  river  forces  its  way  in  numerous  winding 
channels.  In  June  these  rocks  are  deeply  submerged, 
and  only  traceable  by  the  boiling  water  as  the  7-knot 
current  sweeps  over  them.  The  long  time  spent  by  us 
in  reaching  this  point  was  due  to  the  difficulties  of  the 


142  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

"  Yao-tsa-ho  "  below,  as  the  winding  reach,  some  15  miles 
in  length,  which  connects  the  Ichang  and  Mi-tan  gorges, 
is  called  by  the  boatmen.  The  river  valley  here  widens 
out,  and,  whereas  in  the  two  gorges  the  stream  has  cut 
its  way  down  through  the  limestone  mountain,  making 
itself  a  passage  with  vertical  walls  1000  to  2,000  feet  in 
height,  in  this  connecting  reach  the  river  has  to  contend 
with  a  granitic  formation,  which  it  has  disintegrated  and 
broken  up  into  piles  of  gigantic  boulders,  which  lie  strewn 
along  the  floor  of  the  here  widened  valley  in  vast  mounds 
such  as  none  but  Yangtse  trackers,  trained  to  them  from 
childhood,  would  attempt  to  climb  over.  The  "  points  " 
thus  formed  convert  the  Yao-tsa-ho  into  a  continuous 
rapid,  which  the  junk  has  to  surmount  without  ever  being 
able  to  gain  a  straight  lead  for  its  tow-lines  ;  hence  a 
perpetual  struggle,  which  the  imperturbable  Chinaman 
calmly  accepts  as  all  in  the  day's  work,  but  which  is  most 
exasperating  to  the  impatient  foreigner.  To  the  geologist 
this  reach  is  peculiarly  interesting  as  the  one  point  in  the 
navigable  Yangtse  at  which  igneous  rocks  lie  athwart 
the  river's  course,  and  where  a  dyke  of  porphyry  has 
been  cut  through  by  the  stream. 

Immediately  above  the  Mi-tan  gorge  the  valley,  though 
still  bounded  by  precipitous  mountains  rising  to  3,000 
and  4,000  feet,  opens  out,  leaving  a  bench  on  either  hand 
upon  which  are  built  the  busy  village  of  Hsin-tan  ("  New 
rapid")  and  the  picturesque  houses  of  pr  perous  farmers 
and  junk-owners,  forming  a  coup  d'cet'l  that  can  hardly 
be  excelled  in  any  part  of  the  world.  Writing  of  the 
Hsin-tan  as  it  appears  in  January,  Mrs.  Bishop  remarks, 
"  No  description  can  convey  an  idea  of  the  noise  and  tur- 
moil of  the  Hsin-tan.  I  realised  it  best  by  my  hearing 
being  affected  for  some  days  afterwards.  The  tremendous 
crash  and  roar  of  the  cataract,  above  which  the  yells  and 
shouts  of  hundreds  of  straining  trackers  are  heard,  mingled 
with  the  ceaseless  beating  of  drums  and  gongs,  some  as 
signals,  others  to  frighten  evil  spirits,  make  up  a  pande- 
monium which  can  never  be  forgotten." 


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THE  DANGERS  OF  THE  UPPER  YANGTSE    143 

H  this  indefatigable  traveller  could  have  seen  the 
Hsin-tan  when  we  passed  up — all  its  rocks  and  boulders 
hidden,  the  shanties  with  which  these  are  covered  in 
winter  all  disappeared,  the  trackers  having  gone  into  the 
country  for  fieldwork  ;  nothing  but  a  smooth  river,  half 
a  mile  or  more  wide,  with  scarce  a  junk  visible  ;  the  fine 
farm-houses  and  residences  that  dot  the  steep  slopes  on 
the  south  bank  slumbering  amidst  their  groves  of  bamboo 
and  fruit  trees  ;  the  long  straggling  terraced  village  on  the 
north  bank  equally  asleep  in  the  June  sunshine,  with  not 
even  a  dog  awake  to  bark,  she  would  have  hardly  credited 
the  change,  such  is  the  contrast  between  the  Upper  Yangtse 
in  summer,  when  it  has  already  risen  50  or  60  feet  above 
its  winter  level,  and  may  3^et  rise  another  60  feet  before 
autumn.  Fifty  feet  rise  at  the  Shin-tan  means  a  rise  of 
25  feet  above  low  water  level  at  Ichang,  where  alone 
accurate  measurements  are  taken  by  the  officers  of  the 
Imperial  Maritime  Customs,  the  water  being  dammed  up 
above  the  narrows  of  the  Mi-tan  gorge. 

Our  light-draft  junk  warped  up  the  short,  smooth,  steep 
slope  of  the  Yeh-tan,  a  fall  of  about  eight  feet,  without 
difficulty.  The  two  tow-lines  were  carried  by  a  straight 
lead  to  and  warped  round  bollards  fixed  in  a  wide  solid 
stone  bunding  built  for  the  purpose  well  above  high- 
water  mark,  the  whole  operation,  including  the  laying 
out  the  lines,  involving  us  in  scarcely  two  hours'  delay. 
I  may  mention  that  our  junk  was  one  of  the  large  four- 
roomed  kwatze,  as  the  Upper  Yangtse  houseboats  are 
called,  eighty  feet  long  by  twelve  feet  beam,  four  feet 
deep  and  drawing  light  about  two  feet,  easy  to  tow,  and  a 
fast  sailer  with  her  lofty  mast  and  large  light  cotton  lugsail. 
We  had  forty-seven  men  engaged  in  all — a  permanent 
crew  of  ten  always  on  board,  twenty-four  trackers  on  shore, 
eight  men  in  the  tender  constantly  shifting  the  trackers 
from  our  junk  to  the  shore,  and  from  one  bank  to  the  other, 
or  ferrying  them  across  side  streams  and  past  otherwise 
impassable  obstructions,  and  finally  a  crew  of  five  men 
in  the  lifeboat,  which  followed  close  as  a  precaution  in  case 


144  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

of  disaster.  Above  the  Yeh-tan  our  progress  was  slow  ; 
the  river  was  very  bad,  and  the  whirlpools  at  times  baffling, 
notably  that  at  the  Niu-ko  or  Ox-head  rapid,  at  the  point 
where  H.M.S.  Woodlark  was  whirled  against  the  rock 
bank  and  had  her  fore  compartment  entirely  smashed  in  ; 
this  last  was  later  rebuilt  on  the  spot  by  her  able  command- 
er and  gallant  crew — her  engineer  especially — and  thus 
against  all  expectation  she  was  enabled  to  pursue  her 
voyage  to  Chungking.  The  record  of  this  noteworthy 
event,  which  her  crew  painted  in  huge  letters  on  the  rock 
at  the  time,  was  submerged  as  we  passed  up.  Then  through 
the  twenty- two  miles  long  "  Great  Gorge  of  Wu-shan," 
which  it  took  us  three  whole  days  of  hard  struggle  to 
surmount,  into  the  comparatively  open  water  that  unites 
this  chasm  with  the  still  worse  chasm  of  the  last  of  the 
four  great  gorges,  the  "  Bellows  "  gorge,  situated  three 
miles  below  the  celebrated  city  of  Kwei-fu,  and  on  the 
left-hand  upper  portal  of  which  stands  what  is  left  of  the 
"  White  Emperor's  City." 

Before  reaching  the  lower  entrance  of  the  Bellows  gorge 
and  opposite  the  Hoang-tsang-pei,  a  swirling  rapid  caused 
by  one  of  the  innumerable  huge  "  cones  of  dejection," 
which  small  innocent-looking  side  streams  appear  to  have 
vomited  into  the  main  river  as  the  result  of  a  one-time 
cloud-burst  in  the  mountains  behind,  a  very  remarkable 
cleft  in  the  3,000  feet  which  here  forms  the  river's  right 
bank,  compels  the  admiration  of  the  traveller.  This 
cleft,  the  opposing  cliffs  of  which  may  be  half  a  mile 
apart,  is  well-named  by  the  natives  the  "  Tso-kia  Hsia," 
or  "  False  Gorge,"  the  legend  being  that  when  the  Emperor 
Yii  cut  out  the  gorges  through  the  mountains,  that  isolate 
Szechuan  from  the  rest  of  China,  and  so  drained  off  the 
great  red  basin,  he  at  first  set  to  work  on  theTso-kai  Hsia, 
when,  finding  no  way  round,  he  diverted  his  attack  to 
the  higher  mountains  through  which  the  Bellows  gorge 
now  makes  its  way,  and  cut  out  the  present  passage  in  its 
place.  Through  this  narrow  passage  was  now  running  a 
fierce  torrent,  the  overflow  of  the  lake-like  expanse  above. 


THE  DANGERS  OF  THE  UPPER  YANGTSE    145 

So  far  we  had  only  experienced  a  recurrence  of  the  minor 
accidents  incidental  to  junk  travel,  tow-lines  breaking, 
sheering  out  (ta  chang)  in  the  rapids  (equivalent  to  missing 
stays  at  sea) ,  and  the  like,  but  here  our  voyage  came  near 
to  an  abrupt  conclusion.  A  strong  fair  wind  that  set  in 
towards  evening  induced  our  pilot  to  attempt  to  sail 
through  this  six  mile  long  gorge  ;  under  press  of  sail  we 
were  stemming  the  current  famously,  but  the  still  fast- 
rising  river  had  bred  such  terrific  whirlpools  that  our  large 
well-found  junk  proved  like  a  cork  at  their  mercy.  We 
swung  round  and  all  but  capsized  ;  luckily  the  men,  with 
much  difficulty,  succeeded  in  lowering  the  sail  and  bringing 
the  boat  up  under  a  protecting  point  without  damage. 

No  such  good  fortune,  however,  attended  two  large 
cargo  junks  ahead  of  us,  which  we  overtook  at  the  entrance 
of  the  gorge  ;  one  of  these,  a  vessel  chartered  by  the 
Szechuan  Viceroy  carrying  munitions  of  war  from  Shanghai 
to  Ch^ngtu  (of  which  a  continuous  stream,  including 
machine  guns,  had  been  flowing  west  for  two  years  past) 
was  whirled  against  the  rock  bank  on  the  right  and  stove 
in  and  sunk,  her  crew  escaping  and  the  roof  of  the  junk 
being  just  awash,  so  that  the  contents  may  possibly 
be  salved  when  the  water  falls.  The  second  junk,  a  fifty- 
ton  cargo-boat  laden  with  cotton  yam,  sailed  up  the  swift 
rapid  in  splendid  form  and  disappeared  in  the  twilight. 
I  asked  our  pilot,  who  had  now  secured  our  boat  for  the 
night,  why  he  too  did  not  take  advantage  of  the  fair 
wind,  which  was  still  increasing  in  strength,  to  get  through 
this  difficult  gorge.  He  rephed  that  he  could  not  feel 
sure  of  getting  through  before  dark.  At  this  moment  a 
shout  from  our  men,  and,  just  as  the  sudden  darkness  of 
the  latitude  had  shut  in,  the  big  junk  drifted  by  on  her 
beam  ends,  having  capsized  in  mid-stream.  She  was 
barely  visible,  but  the  cries  of  "  Chiu  Ming  !  "  ("  Save 
life  !  ")  were  heartrending,  just  audible  above  the  roar  of 
the  rapid.  It  was  now  pitch  dark,  but  I  suggested  to  our 
accompanying  lifeboat  to  go  after  them  ;  the  helmsman, 
however — and  rightly,  I  think — said  he  dared  not  confront 


146  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

the  whirlpools  in  the  dark.  Two  days  later  we  learnt 
in  Kwei-fu  that  about  half  the  crew  had  been  thrown 
overboard  and  lost,  and  that  the  boat  herself,  if  stiU 
floating  and  not  wrecked  on  the  way,  could  hardly  be 
brought  up  nearer  than  in  the  tranquil  water  off  Ichang. 

The  Bellows  gorge  averages  300  yards  in  width,  but  is 
narrowed  by  projecting  rock-spits  in  three  places  to  half 
this  width,  and  below  these  rage,  at  this  season,  foaming 
whirlpools.  The  spit  under  which  we  were  moored  for 
the  night  was  composed  of  a  very  hard  limestone  and 
chert,  and  had  the  appearance  of  furnace  slag.  Rising 
some  thirty  to  fifty  feet  above  the  present  water-level,  it 
is  covered  in  the  late  summer  freshets,  and  so  the  whole 
surface  is  water-worn  ;  but  the  rock  is  too  hard  to  be  cut 
away  in  potholes,  as  we  see  has  been,  and  still  is  being, 
done  in  countless  similar  reefs  up  and  down  the  river. 

At  the  narrowest  channel  in  this  gorge,  close  to  its  upper 
end,  the  stanchions  and  rock-holes  are  still  visible  at  low 
water  from  which  chains  were  stretched  across  the  Yangtse 
during  the  romantic  period  of  the  wars  of  the  "  Three 
Kingdoms  "  which  ushered  in  the  fall  of  the  great  Han 
dynasty  in  the  third  century  of  our  era.  All  this  region 
is  rich  in  "song  and  story."  Below  this  spot  we  see 
to-day,  as  fresh  as  it  issued  from  the  hands  of  the 
masons  of  old,  the  extraordinary  relic  known  as  M6ng- 
liang's  ladder — a  series  of  squared  holes  chiselled  into 
the  hard  limestone  cliff,  here  about  500  feet  vertical, 
each  hole  fourteen  inches  in  diameter  and  about 
two  feet  in  depth,  into  which  were  inserted  wooden 
beams  up  which  M^ng-liang's  soldiers  either  ascended 
for  attack  or  descended  to  procure  water — it  is 
not  positively  known  which.  The  last  emperor  of  the 
Hans,  Liu-peh,  was  the  builder  of  the  "  Peh-ti-ch'eng," 
or  "White  Emperor's  City,"  so  called  after  its  supposed 
Celestial  founder  and  patron,  a  beautiful  temple  in  whose 
honour  survives  to  this  day.  Its  wooded  terraces 
command  a  striking  view  of  the  gorge  down  stream,  with 
its  highest  cliff  towering  up  some  3,000  feet,  as  also  of  the 


THE  DANGERS  OF  THE  UPPER  YANGTSE    147 

picturesque  city  of  Kwei-fu  built  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
lake-like  reach  three  miles  above. 

We  passed  a  restless  night,  rocked  in  the  swell  of  the 
rapid  and  disturbed  by  the  roar  of  the  whirlpools  which 
increased  in  violence  as  the  river  continued  to  swell  in 
volume  with  the  still-rising  freshets,  the  total  rise  in  the 
night  being  about  ten  feet,  necessitating  constant  shifting 
of  the  boat's  moorings.     At  daylight  the  next  morning 
we  crossed  over  in  the  lifeboat  to  the  left  bank,  and 
climbed  up  the  steep  rock-bank  to  the  New  road.     This  is 
a  road  built  by  a  former  Viceroy  in  the  fifteenth  year  of 
Kwangshii  (a.d.  1888),  from  Kwei-fu  westwards  to  the 
Hupeh  frontier,  a  distance  of  about  fifty  miles,  where, 
traversing  the  gorges,  the  road  is  carried  by  a  gallery  cut 
in  the  limestone  cliffs  and  fenced  by  a  low  stone  balustrade. 
Had  the  road  been  carried  on  farther,  eighty  miles  to 
Ichang,  it  would  have  been  of  inestimable  value  to  travel- 
lers to  and  from  Szechuan,  who  have  practically  no  choice 
of  any  other  than  the  Yangtse  route.     As  it  is,  the  road  is 
useless  ;  it  ends  in  an  absolute  cul-de-sac  in  the  middle  of 
the  Wu-shan  gorge,  and  is  already  falling  into  disrepair. 
Squatters  have  not  been  slow  to  take  advantage  of  the 
terraced  portion  to  grow  crops  on,  and  have  pulled  down 
the  stone  balustrade  in  places  and  used  it  as  foundations 
for  their  adobe  cottages.     So  it  is  everywhere  in  China  : 
a  spasmodic  attempt  at  some  reform  or  improvement  is 
made  by  some  rare   pubhc-spirited    official  or  man  of 
wealth  ;    he  is  not  seconded,  and  his  work  is  rendered 
useless  by  the  apathy  and  ill-will  of  the  people  generally. 
It  seems  to  me  hopeless  to  look  for  any  practical  reforms 
in  China  unless  under  European  supervision,  capable  of 
enforcing  disciphne  and  order  as  in  the  foreign  settle- 
ments ;  left  alone,  the  Chinese  appear  incapable  of  what 
we  call  progress.     If  this  road  were  to  be  completed  and 
sufficiently  enlarged,  Kwei-fu  would  be  brought  within 
a  week  of  Ichang,  and  thousands  of  lives  now  annually 
lost  in  the  rapids  of  the  four  great  gorges  would  be  saved. 
But   there   is  no   present  likelihood    that   it   ever    will 


148  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

be  completed.  In  a  few  more  decades,  what  has  been  al- 
ready begun  will  have  fallen  or  been  pulled  to  pieces  and 
utterly  forgotten. 

The  White  Emperor's  City,  the  western  terminus  of  the 
New  road,  is  now  nothing  but  a  small  village.  A  portion 
of  the  old  concrete  wall  is  still  in  existence,  pierced  by  an 
ancient  gateway,  through  which  the  path  leads  on  to  the 
high-walled  city  of  Kwei-fu,  three  miles  above.  It  was 
here  that  Liu-peh  made  his  last  stand  and  was  killed, 
A.D.  221,  and  so  the  famous  Han  dynasty  succumbed  to 
the  short-lived  Wei.  It  is  hard,  looking  down  at  this 
season  on  the  smooth  lake  200  feet  below,  to  conceive 
the  existence  of  a  manufacturing  city  in  its  centre,  which 
is  annually  submerged  each  summer  and  again  annually 
reconstructed  each  winter  as  the  water  subsides.  Yet  on 
this  sandbank,  now  submerged  several  fathoms,  I  have 
seen  the  smoke  of  countless  brine  distilleries,  and  have 
walked  among  the  brine  wells,  around  which  thousands 
of  workmen  were  busily  employed  on  the  different 
processes  hastening  to  make  the  most  of  the  short  winter 
of  work.  In  Kwei-fu  coal  is  cheap  (about  4s.  a  ton),  as 
also  plentiful. 

Arrived  at  Kwei-fu,  the  perils  of  the  voyage  are  practi- 
cally over — at  least,  at  this  season.  Hence  to  Wan-hien 
we  had  not  the  trace  of  a  rapid  ;  the  bottle  neck  of  the 
Bellows  gorge  had  dammed  up  the  water,  and  the  fierce 
Miao-chi  and  the  dreaded  Hsin-lung-tan  were  absolutely 
non-existent.  The  river,  now  fully  100  feet  above  its 
winter  level,  and  half  to  three  quarters  of  a  mile  wide, 
flowed  smoothly  between  green  slopes,  not  a  vestige  of 
rock  being  visible.  The  contrast  between  the  deep  bright 
green  of  the  maize  which  now  covers  the  lower  slopes, 
and  the  chocolate-coloured  water  in  which  their  feet 
were  immersed,  was  very  striking,  as  was  the  total 
absence  of  life  and  movement  at  the  site  of  the  New 
Grand  Rapid,  formed  by  the  landslip  of  1896.  No  trace 
of  the  town  existed,  the  houses  being  mostly  removed,  and 
the  site  under  water  ;  but  on  high  ground  above  is  a 


THE  DANGERS  OF  THE  UPPER  YANGTSE   149 

handsome  and  extensive  building — a  new  Buddhist  temple 
dedicated  to  Wang  Se,  the  patron  saint  of  boatmen,  and 
subscribed  for  by  the  junkmen,  to  whom  this  rapid  is  a 
lasting  terror  in  the  winter  season  for  want  of  a  few  tons 
of  dynamite  judiciously  expended. 

One  thing  our  summer  voyage  on  the  Upper  Yangtse 
definitely  impressed  upon  us,  and  that  is  that  a  permanent 
and  profitable  steam  service  is  simply  a  question  of 
supplying  the  needful  capital  for  suitable  boats.  Is  this 
navigation  to  be  carried  on  or  to  be  abandoned  to  others 
by  the  British,  who  have  been  the  first  successfully  to 
attempt  it  ?  In  any  case,  we  reached  Wan-hien,  fourteen 
days  out  from  Ichang,  with  the  firm  conviction  that  this 
should  prove  our  last  ascent  of  the  Upper  Yangtse  in  a 
Chinese  junk. 


SZECHUAN    REVISITED 


It  is  always  a  pleasure  to  cover  new  ground  in  travel,  and 
the  novelty  repays  for  the  many  discomforts  incidental 
to  land  journeys  in  this  mediaeval  country.  Hence  it 
was  with  pleasurable  expectation  that  I  set  out  from 
Wan-hien,  whither  I  had  come  from  Ichang  up  the  rapids 
by  boat,  on  the  overland  road  to  Ch^ng-tu,  the  provincial 
capital — a  road  that,  in  its  entire  length,  has  not,  I  believe, 
been  described  in  any  of  the  numerous  books  of  travel 
written  about  the  province  of  Szechuan.  ^  These  pleasur- 
able anticipations  were  not  disappointed,  although  the 
sudden  plunge  from  the  luxury  of  a  houseboat  into  the 
dark,  dirt,  and  discomfort  of  Chinese  inns,  the  exasperat- 
ingly  bad  roads,  and  the  insufficient  protection  from  cold 
and  wet,  are  a  shock  from  which  one's  self-complacency 
only  emerges  after  a  few  days  of  habitude,  which  happily 
reconciles  man  to  almost  every  change  in  his  destiny,  and 
leads  one  unconsciously  to  accept  the  inevitable  without 
a  murmur,  and  at  last  even  to  rej  oice  in  it. 

Itinerary. 

Feb.  14,  Ichang  to  Wan-hien,  Yangtse  river  . .  250  miles 

Feb.  28,  Wan-hien  to  Ch6ng-tu,  land,  W.       .  .  . .  400     ,, 

Mar.  15,  ChSng-tu  to  Sui-fu,  Min  River,  S.S.W.        . .  280     ,, 

April  2,  Sui-fu  to  Chungking,  Yangtse  river,  E.N.E.  240     ,, 


1,170  miles 

A  short  while  ago  I  had  the  pleasure  of  presenting  my 

^  Mrs.  Bishop  wrote  her  description  afterwards.     It  is  also 
very  short. — a.  k.  n.  l. 

150 


SZECHUAN  REVISITED 


151 


readers  with  an  account  of  the  new  great  highway  through 
the  Gorges,  then  being  constructed  by  the  joint  efforts 
of  the  two  Viceroys  concerned, — those  of  Hupeh  and 
Szechuan — intended  to  connect  Chungking  with  Ichang, 
a  distance  of  540  miles,  between  which,  so  far,  the  only 
direct  connection  had  been  over  the  troublous  waters 
of  the  Great  River — a  much  called  for  innovation  which 
it  is  surprising  should  never  have  been  attempted  before 
during  the  two  millennia  that  Szechuan  has  formed  an 
integral  portion  of  the  vast  Chinese  empire. 

Coming  up  through  the  Wu-shan  gorge,  our  boat  reached 
the  frontier  at  about  sunset,  an  hour's  walk  below  the  town 
of  P'ei-shih  "Restored  stone"  (referring  to  an  ancient 
dispute  when  Hupeh  authorities  quarried  a  Szechuan  rock, 
and  had  to  make  the  damage  good),  where  we  were  to 
moor  for  the  night.  Anticipating  a  broad  smooth  road, 
such  as  I  had  traversed  in  the  same  spot  ten  years  before, 
I  landed  from  the  boat,  which,  favoured  by  a  fair  wind  and 
in  the  still,  fathomless  waters  of  the  gorge,  sailed  out  of 
sight  before  I  had  climbed  up  the  200  feet  of  broken  rock 
debris,  above  which  the  path  is  carried.  Scrambling  up  on 
to  the  stone  bund,  built  to  support  the  road,  I  found  on  its 
summit  a  narrow  bean  field,  a  precipice  above  and  a 
precipice  below.  Enterprising  agriculturists  had  regarded 
the  road  as  a  heaven-sent  terrace  for  their  scanty  crops  ; 
with  painful  toil  had  carried  up  earth,  and  spread  it 
thick  on  the  flagged  roadway,  and  were  evidently 
enj  oying  the  valued  strip  of  level  land  rent  free.  This  was 
bad  enough,  but  at  one  side — one  ravine  after  another — 
the  culverts  had  been  washed  away  and  their  places  were 
occupied  by  piles  of  loose  rocks  which  had  to  be  carefully 
scrambled  over  in  order  to  avoid  a  fall  into  the  depths 
below.  Darkness  now  came  on,  but  safe  in  the  trust  that 
my  men,  after  reaching  P'ei-shih,  would  send  lanterns  to 
reUeve  me,  I  took  my  time,  was  eventually  met  with  the 
welcome  light,  and  reached  my  temporary  home  in  safety 
after  a  three  hours'  struggle,  not  unattended  with  danger, 
— in  place  of  the  placid  evening  saunter  along  a  good 


152  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

road  which  I  set  out  to  enjoy.  Thus  the  great  Szechuan 
highway,  opened  with  such  a  flourish  of  trumpets  and 
innumerable  deeply-engraven  rock  inscriptions  in  the 
highest  literary  W^nli,  is  to-day  dead,  after  a  short  ten 
years'  life,  and  is  now  literally  buried.     Such  is  China  ! 

I  have  ventured  on  this  digression  as  a  homily  on  roads 
in  general  before  setting  out  to  describe  the  great  "  Wan  " 
road  in  particular.  There  are  two  celebrated  highways, 
leading  to  the  Szechuan  capital.  The  chief,  and  that 
until  lately  the  most  frequented,  is  known  as  the  Ta-peh-lu 
or  Great  Northern  road,  and  leads  through  Shan-si  to 
Peking.  Marco  Polo  travelled  west  by  this  road  and  men- 
tions the  splendid  trees  planted  on  either  side,  of  which 
now,  alas  !  only  a  few  isolated  specimens  survive.  Over 
this  road 'the  officials  were  wont,  until  quite  recently,  to 
travel  on  their  way  to  take  up  office  in  Szechuan  after 
their  audience  in  the  metropolis.  Since  the  building  of 
the  Peking-Tientsin  railway,  they  mostly  come  round  by 
sea  to  Shanghai,^  thence  up  the  Yangtse  to  Wan-hien, 
and  continue  their  journey  by  the  land  road  to  Cheng-tu, 
which  is,  in  contradistinction,  called  the  Siao-peh-lu  or 
Small  North  road,  although  in  fact  its  course  is  due  east 
and  west.  This  is  now  by  far  the  most  travelled  road  of  the 
two  and  has  the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the  best  roads  in 
the  Empire.  It  is  paved  throughout,  and  has  good  inns  of 
their  kind  in  all  the  resting-places.  The  distance  comprises 
fifteen  stages  of  ninety  /*  each,  in  all  1,350  li,  say  405 
miles,  and  this  distance  might  well  be  shortened  by  one- 
third  were  the  road  scientifically  laid  out.  But  the  Chinese 
seem  never  to  have  arrived  at  the  first  elementary 
principles  of  roadmaking.  Their  work  in  constructing  these 
so-called  great  highways  appears  to  have  been  confined  to 
the  improvement  of  the  pre-existing  trails  uniting  towns 
and  villages  of  the  country  to  each  other.  These  trails 
naturally  wound  through  the  land,  avoiding  here  swamps, 
there  rocks,  by  the  easiest  way  available,  with  no  attempt 

•  The  railway  between  Hankow  and  Peking  was  not  then 
built. A.  E.  N.  L. 


SZECHUAN    REVISITED  153 

to  surmount  difficulties  or  remove  obstructions.  With  the 
view  apparently  of  saving  initial  labour  the  road  ascended 
mountains  by  the  steepest  of  staircases  ;  and  in  the  valleys, 
where  a  straight  road  would  be  the  natural  course,  it  is 
built  on  top  of  the  low  dykes  which  divide  the  paddy- 
fields,  often  winding  round  three  sides  of  a  field  rather 
than  cut  across  it.  In  such  cases  the  distance  is  actually 
increased  threefold.  Among  the  mountains  the  pave- 
ment is  six  and  often  eight  feet  wide  ;  it  was  constructed 
of  the  same  width  in  the  valleys,  but  there  the  farmers 
have  devoted  themselves  to  steadily  undermining  the 
paved  way  on  both  sides  so  as  microscopically  to  add  to 
the  area  of  their  fields,  until  the  stones  break  off,  leaving 
in  many  places  nothing  to  walk  on  but  a  narrow  ridge  of 
soft  earth. 

Although  the  Chinese  do  not  possess  the  first  elementary 
knowledge  needful  to  construct  a  roadway,  even  if  they 
did  not  grudge  the  labour  and  expense,  yet  they  exhibit 
infinite  patience  in  conveying  a  huge  traffic  over  such  roads 
as  they  have.  That  hardest  driven  of  all  beasts  of  burden, 
the  Chinese  carrying  coolie,  shrinks  from  no  obstacle  and 
never  shirks  his  work.  The  rich  Chinese,  who  should  show 
him  how  to  employ  his  labour  to  better  advantage,  lolls 
in  his  sedan  chair  wrapped  up  in  furs,  while  the  half  naked 
coolie  struggles  in  the  mire  or  over  rough  cobble  stones 
from  dawn  to  sunset,  in  heat  and  cold,  in  snow  and  rain, 
without  a  murmur.  We  had  the  misfortune  to  strike 
a  week  of  wet,  cold  weather  after  leaving  Wan-hien,  and 
often  the  path  was  a  mound  of  red  clayey  mud  with  loose 
paving  stones  embedded  in  it  at  intervals.  On  more  than 
one  occasion  we  did  not  make  our  night's  halting-place 
tiU  nine  at  night,  picking  our  way  along  by  the  aid  of 
lanterns  ;  yet  we  never  delayed  our  start  on  the  following 
morning,  and  were  up  in  the  dark  and  off  again  punctually 
at  daybreak.  The  greatest  discomfort  was  the  wet  muddy 
floor  of  the  inns,  with  sometimes  a  leaky  roof  and  always 
the  odour  of  the  pigsty  and  accessories,  at  times  so  bad  that 
we  had  to  change  the  room  originally  allotted  to  us.     In 


154  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

the  regions  where  coal  abounded  we  had  no  trouble  with 
our  cooking,  but  where  grass  and  stalks  of  shrubs  from 
the  hillside  were  the  fuel,  we  had  often  to  depend  on  the 
inn  rice,  for  which  the  one  fire  was  reserved,  so  that  hot 
water  was  not  always  obtainable.  Although  coal  is 
found  everywhere  in  the  "  cross  ranges  "  of  carboniferous 
limestone,  and  costs  only  two  dollars  (about  4s.)  a  ton, 
yet  so  expensive  is  porterage,  approaching  often  to  one 
shining  per  ton  per  mile,  that  it  cannot  be  utilised  beyond 
a  radius  of  twenty  miles  from  the  source  of  production. 
Thus  fairly  good  bituminous  coal  is  mined  in  the  first 
range  crossed  after  leaving  Wan-hien,  a  day's  journey  only 
distant,  and  is  sold  at  Fen-shui  at  one  cash  per  catty ; 
but  delivered  in  Wan-hien,  its  principal  market,  the  cost 
is  fivefolded  to  five  cash  per  catty. 


II 

FROM    WAN-HIEN    TO    THE    PAO-NING    RIVER 

The  road  from  Wan  (450  feet  altitude)  to  the  ChSng-tu 
plain  (1,700  feet)  may  be  divided  roughly  into  halves  : 
the  first  half  leads  across  four  hmestone  ranges,  of  an 
even  altitude  of  3,000  feet  or  more  above  sea  level, 
running  in  folds  north-east  and  south-west  with  "  val- 
leys "  of  lower  red  sandstone  hills  between  them  and 
similar  to,  if  not  identical  with,  the  ranges  athwart  which 
the  Yangtse  river  has  cut  its  succession  of  gorges  and 
which  ends  in  the  valley  of  the  Chii-ho,  a  branch  of  the 
Kia-ling  which,  commg  from  the  district  city  of  Chii, 
debouches  in  the  Great  River,  after  a  winding  course  of 
over  200  miles,  at  Chungking.  The  second  half  comprises 
a  purely  sandstone  country,  a  typical  portion  of  the  great 
red  basin  of  Szechuan,  and  is  composed  of  what  was 
originally  a  sandstone  plateau,  worn  down  by  denudation 
into  the  most  irregular  piles  of  hills  rounded,  conical, 
flat-topped,  pyramidal,  it  is  possible  to  conceive.  There  is 
no  order,  and  there  are  no  consecutive  ranges  nor  regular 


SZECHUAN    REVISITED  155 

valleys  :  deep,  and  often  very  wide,  depressions  wind  in 
and  out  among  the  mountains,  which  still  range  up  to 
two  thousand  feet  and  more  above  sea  level :  no 
streams,  properly  speaking,  follow  the  valleys  :  what 
drainage  there  is,  is  intercepted  at  its  source  for  irrigating 
the  paddy  fields  which  fill  up  the  whole  of  the  valley 
bottoms  and  rise  up  their  sides  as  high  apparently  as 
irrigation  is  obtainable  ;  above  these  the  hills  are  terraced 
again  with  wheat,  bean,  rape  and  opium  fields,  and  where, 
as  is  frequently  the  case,  the  sides  of  the  summits  are 
precipitous,  chat,  or  cities  of  refuge,  have  been  built, 
forming,  with  their  crenelated  battlements  and  ponderous 
gateways,  counterparts  of  the  ordinary  Chinese  walled 
city,  although  actually  uninhabited.  The  problem  of  the 
drainage  of  this  riverless  region  is  a  complicated  one,  and 
can  only  be  solved  after  a  careful  survey  has  been  made. 

The  cypress  (peh-mu)  is  the  favourite  tree  everywhere  ; 
the  lower  branches  are  trimmed  off,  both  to  prevent  the 
tree  shading  the  fields  and  to  encourage  a  tall  growth,  and 
the  effect  is  eminently  lugubrious.  The  summits,  which 
might  carry  a  fair  growth  of  timber,  are  stripped  bare  for 
fuel,  women  and  children  with  baskets  behind  them 
(peit'ze),  grubbing  up  every  shrub  and  blade  of  grass, 
often  even  the  roots,  to  obtain  the  indispensable  fuel. 
The  scenery,  which  would  otherwise  be  highly  picturesque, 
has  thus  an  artificially  barren  and  woe-begone  aspect,  the 
red  hiUs  with  their  often  precipitous  sides  affording  a  fine 
contrast  to  such  greenery  as  is  permitted  to  remain. 

The  road  here  follows  a  most  complicated  course  :  at 
times  winding  for  miles  through  an  interminable  valley, 
then  rising  up  and  skirting  the  edge  of  an  amphitheatre 
of  rock  half  a  mile  in  diameter  and  400  to  500  feet  in 
depth  ;  the  wide  opening  into  a  valley  below  with  precip- 
itous sides  leading  to  a  succession  of  step-like  terraces,  of 
which  in  one  place  I  counted  no  less  than  twenty-three, 
all  carefully  cultivated  and  united  by  red  rock  staircases. 
At  other  places  the  road,  still  carried  along  on  a  high 
level,   commanding  extensive   and,   at   times,   romantic 


156  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

views,  almost  doubles  back  on  itself,  and,  often,  riding 
ahead  of  my  train  of  coolies,  I  would  confront  them  face 
to  face  with  only  a  deep  chasm  separating  us  ;  then,  when 
you  think  the  road  must  continue  on  the  level,  or  at  least 
descend,  you  come  suddenly  upon  a  staircase  of  several 
hundred  steps — so  steep  that  it  would  be  cruel  to  ride 
your  pony  up  it,  and  much  more  so  to  be  carried  in  a 
chair — leading  to  a  narrow  flat-topped  "  col,"  down  which 
is  an  equally  steep  descent  on  the  other  side.  Descending 
gradually  along  a  winding  valley  terraced  with  crops, 
the  yellow  rape  flower  predominating  and  filHng  the  air 
with  scent,  you  find  the  richest  "  dry  "  bottom  lands 
given  over  to  the  poppy,  in  the  cultivation  of  which  there 
is  hardly  a  break  in  all  the  600  miles  from  Ichang  to 
Chengtu. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  positively  what  effect  this  great 
recent  increase  in  opium-growing^  has  had  upon  the  general 
food  supply.  Rice  and  wheat  are  still  plentiful  and 
cheap  ;  imported  kerosene  oil  has  largely  replaced  bean- 
oil,  and  aniline  dyes  (more's  the  pity  !)  are  fast  abohshing 
the  cultivation  of  madder  and  saffiower,  although,  owing 
to  the  rise  in  copper  cash,  they  are  some  forty  per  cent, 
dearer  in  silver  than  they  were  five  years  ago.  The 
farmer  who,  owing  to  the  want  of  good  roads,  has  no 
market  beyond  his  immediate  neighbourhood,  naturally 
favours  a  product  so  easily  transported  and  so  readily 
saleable  as  opium  and  which  affords  also  so  many  useful 
by-products.  Of  the  ill  effect  on  the  population  of  a 
cheap  and  plentiful  supply  of  the  fascinating  drug  there 
can  be  no  two  opinions  :  more  filthy  towns,  dilapidated 
houses  and  ragged,  depraved-looking  people  than  one 
meets  in  these  inland  districts  it  would  be  difficult  to 
find  anywhere  ;  yet  their  poverty  is  more  apparent  than 
real.  Men,  in  rags  and  covered  with  dirt,  were  generally 
carrying  a  bamboo  hand  basket  holding  live  charcoal 
lashed  to  their  waists  under  their  long  gowns,  adding 
an  appearance  of  deformity  to  their  other  attractions. 
*  Now  forbidden — a.  e.  n.  l. 


SZECHUAN    REVISITED  157 

Picturesque  as  are  most  of  these  country  towns  seen  from 
a  distance,  they  are  positively  repulsive  on  nearer 
acquaintance,  but  it  is  impossible  to  circuit  and  so  avoid 
them,  as  the  only  path  leads  straight  through  them.  The 
necessity  of  stopping  in  such  resthouses !:  for  meals  (one 
must  stop  where  the  coolies  eat)  is  trying  to  a  foreigner, 
especially  as  he  is  always  surrounded  by  a  filthy  and 
contemptuous  mob.  It  was  in  one  of  these  towns,  re- 
joicing in  the  name  of  "  Newmarket  "  that  Mrs.  Bishop 

was  badly  stoned  in  1898,  and  another  year  Mr. ,  of 

the  China  Inland  Mission,  was  similarly  treated  in  the  same 
place.  A  woman  is,  of  course,  always  fair  game  to  the 
Chinese,  but  a  man,  as  a  rule,  should  have  little  difficulty 
in  keeping  the  wretched  riff-raff  at  bay.  In  the  higher 
mountains,  on  the  other  hand,  and  in  the  country  generally, 
and  especially  in  the  capital  itself,  the  people  are  as  quiet 
and  civil  as  one  could  wish. 

The  four  ranges  of  mountains  that  are  crossed  before 
the  valley  of  the  Chii  river  is  reached  are  beautifully 
wooded  with  pines,  the  elegant  Cunninghamea,  oaks, 
Ficus  infectoria,  and  endless  varieties  of  bamboo.  Being 
distant  from  water  communication,  large  portions  of  the 
virgin  forest  remain  untouched,  though  I  noticed  many 
fresh  clearances  in  which  the  rich  humus  was  newly  sown 
with  poppy.  The  main  industries  of  these  mountains 
depend,  however,  upon  the  bamboo  ;  a  vast  quantity 
of  excellent  bamboo  paper  is  manufactured  hereabouts, 
and  we  met  strings  of  porters  carrying  paper,  besides 
bundles  of  bamboo  roots  used  for  horse  whips,  all  of  which 
are  exported  down  river  from  the  busy  mart  of  Wan. 

Coal  is  mined  in  all  these  mountains  ;  there  appears 
to  be  no' actual  property  in  the  mines  ;  any  one  is  free  to 
open  an  adit  in  the  hillside,  in  which  he  works  until  stopped 
by  water  ;  the  adits  are,  as  a  rule,  only  just  high  enough 
for  men  (and  women)  to  crawl  in  on  all-fours,  and  one  sees 
the  unfortunate  miners  emerging  from  their  burrows, 
crawling  on  their  hands  and  feet,  dragging  a  "  to  tsz,"  laden 
with  coal  behind  them,  more  Hke  rabbits  in  a  warren  than 


158  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

human  beings.  The  coal  is  sold  at  the  pit's  mouth  for 
sixty  cash  a  catty,  or  less  than  three  shillings  a  ton.  It 
is  bought  on  the  spot  by  carrying  coolies  on  their  own 
account,  who  take  the  coal  to  market  and  earn  what 
freight  for  it  they  can. 

Many  of  the  wretched  miners  are  kidnapped  children 
and  virtually  slaves  ;  they  work  day  and  night  in  shifts 
of  twelve  hours,  receiving  their  rice  and  trifling  wage, 
which  is  always  overdrawn,  owing  to  the  exactions  of  the 
truckmaster,  who  is  also  the  proprietor  of  the  mine. 

The  seams  here,  we  were  told,  were  from  one  to  two  feet 
thick  and  very  steeply  inclined  ;  one  sees  one  adit  above 
another  climbing  up  the  steep  hillside.  One  of  the  most 
picturesque  glens  traversed  by  the  road  is  known  as 
Fo-erh-ngai, — Buddha's  ear  cliff, — while  another  extra- 
ordinarily confined  cleft  in  the  limestone,  with  vertical 
walls,  the  path  running  along  a  narrow  ledge  with  a 
precipice  above  and  below,  is  called  Ting-tze-ya  or 
"  Pavihon  gap."  We  passed  through  the  cities  of 
Liang-shan  (ridge  mountain),  situated  in  a  wide  fertile 
"  pa  "  or  fiat  between  two  ranges,  and  Ta-tsu,  "  big 
bamboo,"  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  Hien  city  of 
the  same  name-sound,  north  of  Chungking,  but  meaning 
"  big  feet  "  (the  people  are  of  Hakka  descent  and  the 
women  have  natural  feet  and  are  despised  accordingly), 
the  home  of  the  whilom  rebel,  Yii-man-tze. 

After  leaving  Ta-tsu-liien  the  road,  before  it  descends 
to  the  valley  of  the  Chii,  crosses  the  fourth  and  last 
range,  a  wide,  double  fold,  with  all  the  characteristics  of 
limestone — deep  sinks,  rugged  ravines,  caves  and  pinnacles 
— a  beautiful  country,  wooded  but  needing  sunshine  to 
be  duly  appreciated,  whereas  we  were  enveloped  in  clouds 
and  drizzling  rain.  We  put  up  for  the  night  at  Li-tu-ho,  a 
small  town  pleasantly  situated  on  the  banks  of  this  river, 
which  at  this  season  is  a  sluggish  stream  of  blue,  deep, 
clear  water,  flowing  between  gentle  sandstone  hills  and 
wooded  cliffs,  and  is  from  150  to  200  yards  in  width.  The 
high  mountains  we  had  passed   through  between   this 


SZECHUAN    REVISITED  159 

point  and  Wan-hien  afford  as  fine  scenery  as  any  on  the 
Yangtse.  Leaving  Li-tu-ho  (Li  ferry  river)  the  next 
morning  we  ascended  by  the  valley  of  an  affluent,  which 
exhibited  in  a  most  convincing  way  the  simple  modus 
operandi  employed  by  nature  in  excavating  the  gorges 
through  which  all  the  Szechuan  rivers  flow,  including  those 
of  the  Great  Yangtse  itself.  This  affluent  flows  in  a  gorge 
at  the  head  of  which  is  a  precipitous  wall  of  rock  over 
which  the  river  breaks  in  a  waterfall  about  100  feet  deep 
and  200  feet  wide  (by  measurement).  The  chasm  below 
the  fall  is  still  jammed  with  the  huge  angular  rock  frag- 
ments that  have  tumbled  in,  as  the  softer  supporting 
strata  were  dissolved  by  the  water.  The  stream  being  a 
comparatively  gentle  one  has  not  yet  carried  off  these 
dejecta  as  is  the  case  in  the  more  powerful  rivers,  though 
in  these  many  of  the  harder,  huge  rock  masses  still 
remain  unremoved  and  form  dangerous  obstructions  to 
navigation.  The  many  arched  bridge  by  which  we 
crossed  the  river  above  the  fall  led  to  the  village  of 
Chung-t'an-ch'iao  (central  rapid  bridge),  in  a  dirty  inn 
in  which  we  breakfasted. 

From  here  we  crossed  a  steep  sandstone  ridge  that 
makes  the  waterparting  between  the  valley  of  the  Chii 
and  that  of  the  Pao-ning  river,  another  of  the  many 
affluents  of  the  Kia-ling,  which  joins  the  Yangtse  at 
Chungking  ;  and  after  two  days'  journey  reached  the 
prefectural  city  of  Shun-king,  the  walls  of  which  are 
washed  by  the  deep,  clear  water  that  descends  from 
Pao-ning  (now  the  seat  of  a  bishopric  of  the  Church  of 
England),  and  the  lofty  Tsung-ling  range  to  the  north 
and  east  of  the  province.  The  river  bed,  now  mostly 
dry  sandbank,  is  fully  a  mile  wide  ;  a  rich,  wide,  cultivated 
plain  of  great  fertihty,  to  judge  by  the  height  of  the 
crops  (the  rape  here  was  over  six  feet),  covers  the  banks  of 
the  river  and  stretches  a  mile  or  more  on  each  side  till  it 
meets  the  sandstone  cliffs  that  bound  the  valley  on  either 
hand,  and  at  one  time  bounded  the  river  also.  This  valley 
forms  the  setting  of  the  prefectural  city  of  Shun-king. 


i6o  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

III 

FROM    SHUN-KING    TO    THE    CHENG-TU    PLAIN 

The  city  of  Shun-king  has  two  handsome  Mission  estab- 
lishments ;  one,  that  of  the  Roman  CathoHcs,  newly 
built  ;  one,  that  of  the  China  Inland  Mission,  a  spacious 
native  Kung-kuan  ;  both  have  recently  been  provided 
by  the  local  officials  in  heu  of  the  premises  destroyed  in 
the  Yii  Man-tze  riots  of  1898.  At  the  latter  I  was  hospit- 
ably entertained  by  Mr.  Evans,  the  incumbent  in  charge. 
These  oases  are  fast  multiplying  in  Szechuan,  so  that  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  travel  in  the  west  without  finding 
a  fellow-countryman  in  every  large  city.  Szechuan  no 
longer  seems  the  remote  country  it  was  when  I  first  visited 
it  seventeen  years  eariier,  and,  although  the  "  British 
sphere  "  is  a  pure  chimera,  yet  the  number  of  British 
interests  in  the  province  are  rapidly  increasing  from  day 
to  day.  The  communication  with  Shanghai  by  steam, 
now  shortly  to  become  an  accomplished  fact,  is  anxiously 
looked  forward  to  by  foreigners  and  Chinese  alike,  and  a 
great  farther  development  of  the  varied  resources  of  this 
exceptional  province  must  surely  follow. 

Leaving  Shun-king,  we  wound  for  two  days  more  up 
and  down  and  in  and  out  of  the  inextricable  maze  of 
sandstone  ridges  and  mountains,  and  then  descended  into 
the  narrow  valley  in  which  is  situated  the  picturesque 
district  city  of  P6ng-chi  (hat-shed  stream).  The  sun  now 
shone  out  at  last  and  a  lovely  view  we  might  have  taken  of 
its  walls  and  towers,  had  we  been  provided  with  a  camera. 
A  small  but  wide,  clear  stream  flows  through  the  town 
and  descends  in  a  fall  over  sandstone  steps,  above  which 
it  is  crossed  by  one  of  the  elegant  Szechuan  covered  bridges. 
P^ng-chi-hien  is  the  centre  of  a  salt  district  ;  we  had 
already  met  in  the  mountains  strings  of  small,  yellow 
oxen,  as  well  as  coohes,  carrying  salt  to  Shun-king-fu  ; 
we  now  passed  numberless  primitive  salt  wells,  each 
surmounted  by  a  bamboo  wheel,  on  which  is  wound  the 


SZECHUAN    REVISITED  i6i 

rope,  flat  strips  of  bamboo  laced  together  at  the  ends, 
which  hauls  up  the  hollow  bamboo  stem,  furnished  with 
a  valve  at  the  bottom,  in  which  the  brine  is  conveyed  to 
the  surface.  These  wells  are  scattered  about  in  all 
directions  ;  in  the  bottoms  and  on  the  valley  sides, 
apparently  without  rhyme  or  reason  ;  on  enquiry  as  to 
how  the  sites  were  selected,  we  were  told  that  the  selection 
is  made  by  experts  who,  in  true  Chinese  fashion,  are  paid 
by  results.  Unlike  those  at  the  great  salt  centre  of 
Tse-liu-ching  in  the  west  of  the  province,  the  wells  here- 
abouts are  comparatively  shallow — 200  to  800  feet.  They 
are  pumped  by  two  men  who  walk  on  the  top  of  the 
wheel,  tread-mill  fashion,  and  only  work  for  about  an 
hour  daily,  morning  and  evening,  giving  time  for  the 
brine  to  collect  in  the  intervals.  Thus  nearly  every 
farm  has  its  private  salt  depot,  and  the  value  is  so  low 
that,  notwithstanding  the  poverty  of  the  brine,  the  price 
of  the  prepared  salt  on  the  spot  is  only  twenty  cash  per 
catty — about  2|d.  per  lb.  The  brine  is  evaporated  in 
iron  pans  in  the  usual  way,  but  here,  distant  from  coal, 
the  fuel,  strange  to  say,  is  grass,  and  two  women  stood 
beside  the  furnace  steadily  plying  the  fire  with  this  flimsy, 
fugacious  material  until  the  evaporation  was  completed. 
Hence  the  barren  hill-tops  and  the  fruitless  search  for 
the  smallest  patch  of  pasture  upon  which  to  feed  my  pony 
and  provide  him  with  a  much  needed  change  of  fodder 
after  the  dry  maize  and  rice  he  champs  through  the  night, 
as  he  rests  in  the  inns  on  the  route.  I  saw,  in  this  district, 
women  on  their  knees  grubbing  up  roots  of  coarse  grass 
in  the  ardour  of  their  search  after  this  indispensable 
commodity. 

One  day  more  wandering  amidst  the  maze  of  sandstone 
mountains  and  we  reach  Tai-ho-ch^n  (great  river  mart), 
and  are  gladdened  once  more  by  the  sight  of  a  large  river, 
the  main  fork  of  the  Kia-ling,  leading  direct  to  Chungking, 
200  miles  to  the  south.  We  now  felt  like  approaching 
home  with  the  back  of  our  journey  broken.  Tai-ho-ch^n 
is  a  busy  well-built  town  situated  at  the  head  of  navigation 

M 


i62  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

for  large  junks  and  one  of  the  chief  shipping  points  whence 
the  produce  of  the  rich  Ch^ng-tu  plateau  and  of  the 
mountain  districts  to  the  north  is  conveyed  by  water  to 
Chungking.  Junks  carrying  about  twenty  tons,  put 
together  of  rough  planks,  fastened  with  wooden  pegs — 
no  nails — and  caulked  with  grass  and  brush,  load  bulky 
medicinal  herbs  for  Chungking,  where,  after  their  one 
voyage  down  stream,  they  are  broken  up  and  sold  for 
lumber.  This  place,  as  well  as  the  neighbouring  district 
city  of  Sh^-hung,  was  a  station  of  the  Friends'  Foreign 
Missionary  Association,  at  the  time  I  visited  it  under  the 
supervision  of  Mr.  Joshua  Mason,  who  resided  himself  at 
Sh^-mung.  It  was  here  that  the  year  before  Mr.  Davidson 
of  this  mission  was  badly  maltreated  by  a  mob  of  roughs  ; 
he  obtained,  however,  pecuniary  compensation  from  the 
local  officials  and  has  since  gone  home  to  recruit.  The 
Great  and  Little  North  Roads  meet  at  Tai-ho-chen,  the 
former  taxiing  a  more  northerly  course  by  way  of  Sh^- 
mung,  whi  e  the  latter,  which  is  the  shorter  by  forty  It, 
goes  south  .  nd  dips  down  into  the  Cheng-tu  plain  by  the 
pass  of  San-wang-miao,  1,500  feet  above  it,  and  is  thus 
3,100  feet  above  sea  level. 

Four  days  more  amidst  sandstone  mountains  of  the 
same  character,  and  which,  though  affording  many 
romantic  views,  grow  decidedly  monotonous,  as  day  after 
day  one  is  trying  to  extricate  oneself  from  their  entangle- 
ment, when,  at  last,  the  summit  of  a  very  steep  pass 
discloses  the  long-looked-for  plain  in  the  offing  and 
brings  Cheng-tu,  our  immediate  goal,  at  length  within 
measurable  distance. 


IV 

Ch£nG-TU  and  the  return  journey  to  CHUNGKING 

We  descended  from  San-wang-miao  by  a  very  steep  stair- 
case to  the  banks  of  a  small  rapid  stream,  which  banks  we 
followed  until  the  stream  emerged  through  a  cleft  in  the 


SZECHUAN    REVISITED  163 

hills  on  to  the  plain  below.  We  were  enjoying  beautiful 
sunshine  ;  indeed  it  was  our  first  spring  day,  but  all  we 
could  see  of  the  famous  plateau  below  was  a  sea  of  yellow 
haze,  pierced  by  green  foliage,  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach. 
The  stream  rapidly  increased  in  size  ;  it  had  scooped  out  a 
deep  ravine  with  high  cliffs  in  places  which  exhibited  a 
fine  geological  section  of  the  strata,  here  as  throughout, 
horizontal — of  different  coloured  sandstones  and  marls, 
white,  brown,  grey,  vermilion,  purple,  all  disintegrating ; 
while  our  pathway  was  paved  with  a  tough  bluish  sand- 
stone. The  rich  assortment  of  building  stone  in  the 
country  we  had  been  traversing,  from  Wan-hien  on,  is 
scarcely  utilised  ;  the  houses  are  mostly  adobe  with 
thatched  roofs,  a  few  of  the  better  class  only  using  brick 
and  tile  ;  the  stone  is  reserved  for  the  construction  of  the 
invaluable  opposition  manure  traps  (as  Wingrove  Cook 
well  named  them)  which  are  a  feature  in  every  Chinese 
landscape  ;  here  they  are  built  with  substantial  stone 
walls  and  roofed  with  broad  sandstone  slabs,  holding  out 
every  inducement  to  the  passing  wayfarer,  upon  whom 
the  Chinese  agriculturist  is  so  largely  dependent  for  his 
indispensable  fertiliser. 

The  hills  drop  suddenly  into  the  alluvial  plain,  though, 
here  on  the  east  and  south  sides,  not  as  sharply  as  do  the 
high  limestone  cliffs  which  fence  in  the  plateau  to  the 
north  and  west.  We  traverse  an  orange  grove  and  three 
miles  farther  reach  a  crowded  dirty  town  called  Chao-chia- 
tu.  This  "  Ferry  of  the  Chao  Family  "  is  built  on  a  sand- 
bank between  two  wide  shallow  streams,  coming  from  the 
north,  which  unite  lower  down  to  form  the  To  River, 
which  further  on  serves  the  great  salt  district  of  Tse-liu- 
ching  and  conveys  its  produce  to  the  famous  mart  of 
Lu-chow,  situated  at  its  junction  with  the  Yangtse,  150 
miles  above  Chungking.  Of  the  two  streams  one,  the 
Peh,  or  North,  one  the  Tung,  or  East  River,  100  yards 
in  width  and,  at  this  season,  two  to  three  feet  in  depth, 
the  first  we  crossed  by  a  ferry  and  the  second  by  a  tem- 
porary bridge  of  ricketty  planks  upon  which  it  surprised 


i64  GLEANINGS    FROM   CHINA 

me,  clever  though  he  is,  that  the  pony  was  able  to  keep 
his  footing.  The  "  Chao  family  "  turned  out  in  their 
thousands  as  I  rode  through  their  dirty  streets  and  seemed 
prepared  to  give  me  an  unpleasant  send-off  at  the  ferry, 
but  my  men  quieted  them  with  the  information  that  I 
was  come  to  build  them  a  railway  !  On  a  pony  and  in 
European  dress  one  is  necessarily  a  conspicuous  object  ; 
on  former  journeys  and  in  a  closed  sedan  I  have  passed 
with  almost  no  notice  whatever. 

Continuing  along  the  level  plateau,  through  a  succession 
of  farms,  groves  of  bamboo,  walnut  and  many  fruit  trees, 
now  just  opening  into  blossom ;  past  innumerable  alder- 
lined  irrigation  streams  and  through  more  fields  of  rape, 
wheat  and  opium  ;  six  miles  farther  brought  us  to  the 
town  of  Tao-chia-tu  (Tao  family  ferry),  on  the  south- 
east bank  of  the  P'i  river  (so  called  from  its  traversing 
the  city  of  that  name),  here  fully  200  yards  broad  and 
spanned  by  a  lofty  sandstone  bridge  of  twenty-five  curved 
arches.  The  river  here  flows  in  a  north-east  direction, 
and  presumably  also  falls  into  the  To.  Tao-chia-tu  is  a 
quiet,  clean  town  with  a  remarkably  fine  inn  of  many  court- 
yards, in  which  we  took  our  tifiin.  Thence  on,  almost 
us  the  gates  of  ChSng-tu,  the  Small  North  Road  carried 
to  over  low  foothills  which  bound  the  plain  on  its  south- 
east side,  and  in  another  twenty-four  hours  led  us  into 
the  city  itself,  which  we  entered  by  the  north  gate  and 
putting  up  at  an  inn,  no  more  clean  and  even  more 
dilapidated  than  many  we  had  encountered  en  route, 
terminated  this,  the  long  second  stage  of  our  circuitous 
journey. 

ChSng-tu,  the  capital  city  of  the  whilom  kingdom  of 
Shu,  would  seem  to  have  sadly  decayed  in  the  600  years 
that  have  elapsed  since  Marco  Polo  visited  and  described 
it  in  his  famous  chapter  on  Caindu.  It  is  still  a  fine  city, 
as  Chinese  cities  go,  possessing  wide,  well-paved  streets 
(though  the  pavement  is  much  cut  up  by  wheelbarrow 
ruts),  but  the  buildings  are  low  and  poor,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  one  or  two  magnificent  old  temples,  almost  equal 


w 


(J-. 


u 


o 


SZECHUAN    REVISITED  165 

to  anything  in  Japan,  such  as  the  Ching-yang  Taoist 
monastery,  and  that  built  in  memory  of  Chu-ko-liang, 
the  hero  of  the  wars  of  the  Three  Kingdoms.  This  mean 
appearance  is  due  probably  to  the  scarcity  of  large  timber 
and  the  absence  of  building  stone  in  the  immediate 
neighbourhood.  There  is  an  air  of  space  and  fresh- 
ness, which  is  very  enjoyable  after  the  closeness  and  con- 
finement of  Chungking.  The  chief  feature  of  the  place 
to  a  "  Western,"  is  the  fact  that  the  city  now  contains 
several  extensive  missionary  establishments,  at  which 
the  traveller  is  sure  of  most  hospitable  welcome  ;  and 
with  the  many  European  mining  and  engineering  parties 
then  and  for  some  time  previously  travelling  in  the 
province  this  hospitality  must  have  been  somewhat 
severely  taxed. 

The  principal  missions  here  at  this  date  were  the 
American  Methodist,  the  Canadian  Methodist,  and  the 
Canadian  Ladies'  mission,  besides  of  course  the  ubiquitous 
China  Inland  Mission.  The  former  have  all  extensive 
premises,  covering  considerable  areas  of  ground,  on  which 
are  built  the  detached  residences  of  the  different  missionary 
families,  chapels,  schools  for  boys  and  girls,  and  well 
appointed  hospitals.  In  the  grounds  of  the  American 
mission  are  many  fine  old  trees,  Nan-mu,  Soap  and  Walnut 
trees.  The  Canadian  mission  adjoined  the  Tartar  parade 
ground,  and  had  thus  ample  breathing-space  ;  this  mission 
was  about  establishing  presses  with  movable  types,  with 
the  view  of  printing  Christian  tracts  and  of  republishing 
the  books  of  the  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Western 
Knowledge,  then  printed  in  Shanghai.  There  was  a 
rapidly  growing  demand  among  the  Chinese  for  Western 
literature,  especially  for  scientific  and  historical  works. 
All  the  missions  were  hard  at  work  in  many  directions, 
and  the  late  riots,  factitiously  fomented  for  the  sake  of 
plunder,  and  with  fortunately  no  attempt  to  take  life, 
had  apparently  cleared  the  air  and  resulted  in  the  frank 
acknowledgment  of  their  work  by  the  officials,  with  whom 
the  missions  then  stood  on  an  agreeably  friendly  footing. 


i66  GLEANINGS    FROM   CHINA 

In  addition  to  the  missionaries,  Ch^ng-tu,  when 
I  arrived,  held  within  its  ample  walls  Mr.  Pritchard  Mor- 
gan's party  of  Dr.  Jack  and  two  mining  associates  ; 
Mr.  Birch,  Railway  Engineer ;  Mr.  Bigham,  of  H.M. 
Legation,  Peking  ;  Mr.  Ker,  Railroad  Surveyor  of  the 
Yunnan  Company ;  while  Mr.  Watts-Jones,  R.E.,  of 
the  same  company,  was  daily  expected  there.  Altogether 
this  Far  West  Metropolis  was  beginning  to  acquire  the  life 
of  a  treaty  port,  and  dinner  and  tea  parties  were  the  order 
of  the  day.  Foreigners,  men  and  women,  traversed  the 
very  crowded  streets,  not  only  without  molestation,  but 
without  being  noticed.  The  air  of  the  plateau,  1,700  feet 
above  sea  level,  is  fresh  and  exhilarating,  and  good  food 
is  abundant  and  cheap.  The  women  from  the  Tartar 
city,  moving  about  with  uncramped  feet  and  rosy  faces, 
give  a  variety  wanting  in  the  ordinary  Chinese  city,  as  do 
the  Lamas  and  Man-tse  aborigines  who  visit  Ch^ng-tu  in 
the  winter  season. 

The  River  Min,  which,  by  one  of  its  sources,  takes  its 
rise  at  Djanla  on  the  Tibetan  plateau,  flows  under  the  walls 
of  Ch^ng-tu,  and  provides  direct  water  communication 
with  Chungking  and  with  the  sea,  2,000  miles  distant. 
The  river  at  this  season,  to  within  forty  miles  of  the  city, 
was  very  shallow,  partly  owing  to  the  dry  winter  and  partly 
owing  to  the  succession  of  artificial  bars,  made  of  boulders 
enclosed  in  long  sacks  of  bamboo  wicker-work,  erected 
by  the  farmers  to  draw  off  water  for  the  rice  fields,  then 
in  process  of  irrigation.  Other  dams  are  built  to  provide 
the  many  rice-shelling  and  wheat-grinding  mills  with 
water  power.  But  at  Kiang-k'ou,  the  two  main  branches 
of  the  Min,  which  are  subdivided  at  Kwan-hien  (where  the 
Sung-p'an  River  debouches  from  the  snowy  range  that 
bounds  the  plateau  on  the  north  and  west),  reunite  to 
form  a  fine  navigable  river  as  large  as  the  Rhine  at  Mann- 
heim. This  and  the  many  other  subdivisions  of  the 
northern  Szechuan  affluents  of  the  great  river,  were 
carried  out  2,000  years  ago  by  the  celebrated  Li-er-lang 
{Li  the  second  gentleman,  his  other  name  is  lost),  whose 


SZECHUAN    REVISITED  167 

memorial  temples  extend  from  Kwan-hien  to  Ichang  ; 
that,  at  the  latter  port,  giving  name  to  the  pleasing  village 
of  Er-lang-miao  situated  at  the  mouth  of  the  little  river 
opposite  the  walled  city. 

During  my  stay  here  I  had  the  opportunity  of  visiting 
the  annual  fair,  which  was  held  on  the  fifteenth  day  of 
the  second  moon  in  the  finely  wooded  grounds  of  the 
Ching-yang-kung,  an  ancient,  elaborate  Taoist  temple 
situated  outside  the  south  gate.  The  fair  comprises 
streets  of  booths  in  which  are  displayed  for  sale  all  the 
many  articles  of  furniture  and  of  general  domestic  use 
and  luxury  which  the  Chinese  employ.  The  exhibition 
of  flowers  and  flowering  shrubs  was  particularly  at- 
tractive, and  indeed  the  whole  show  afforded  a  strong 
reminiscence  of  Japan,  and,  but  for  the  greater 
sedateness  of  the  crowd,  solely  on  business  bent, 
one  might  have  imagined  oneself  transported  to  the 
park  of  Uyeno.  Singing  and  talking  birds  abounded, 
and  in  the  temple  buildings  the  walls  were  hung 
with  kakemonos  of  Chinese  design,  some  old  and 
valuable  but  chiefly  cheap  modem  pictures.  "  Ching- 
yang-kung  "  means,  translated,  "  Palace  of  the  Golden 
Sheep  :  "  two  antique  bronze  sheep  stand  in  front  of  the 
chief  altar  and  these  are  polished  bright  by  the  hands 
of  worshippers,  mostly  women,  who  were  crowding  round, 
first  rubbing  the  sheep  and  then  touching  the  affected  part 
on  their  own  bodies,  when  a  miraculous  cure  is  supposed 
to  take  place.  Needless  to  add  that  whatever  uncertainty 
in  the  result  to  the  worshippers,  the  harvest  of  cash  to  the 
priests  is  certain,  and,  as  the  fine  temple  and  grounds  are 
kept  in  excellent  order,  I  do  not  grudge  it  them.  Mys- 
teries seem  dear  to  the  untutored  mind,  and  Taoism  is  not 
the  only  religious  system  that  provides  them  with  result? 
more  or  less  beneficial. 

I  left  Cheng-tu  by  water  in  all  the  luxury  of  a 
"  wupan  "  rowed  down  stream  by  four  men,  and  though 
pleasant  at  first,  I  came  to  the  conclusion,  before 
twenty-four    hours    were    over,    that    the    confinement 


i68  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

of  a  small  boat  was  a  bad  exchange  for  the  exercise  and 
freedom  of  land  travel,  malgrc  its  frequent  discomforts. 
Yet  the  beautifully  accidents  country,  in  all  its  spring 
bravery,  red  rocks,  blue  water,  variegated  blossoms, 
bamboos,  dark  forest  trees,  temples  glittering  with  tiles 
of  green  and  gold,  elegant  shimmer,  rock  carvings,  Man- 
tse  caves,  gorges  and  rapids,  makes  a  panorama  each  turn 
in  which  is  a  picture  that  any  artist  might  paint  with 
pleasure. 

In  one  respect  the  stretch  of  river  500  miles  above 
Chungking  and  which  gives  water  communication  to  the 
busy  towns  of  Chang-peh-sha,  Luchow,  Sui-fu,  Kia-ting, 
and  Cheng-tu,  affords  a  marked  contrast  to  the  500  miles 
below  Chungking.  In  this  stretch,  although  still  a  rapid 
stream,  the  river  follows  the  valleys  in  a  natural  way 
and  runs  parallel  with  the  stratification  ;  hence  there  are 
no  cross  reefs  athwart  the  current,  and  though  races 
attended  by  whirlpools,  dangerous  to  ill-found  craft, 
occur,  it  is  not  a  vicious  river  as  is  the  stretch  below.  In 
the  lower  section  the  Yangtse  has  cut  across  the  mountain 
ranges  and  runs  at  right  angles  to  them  and  to  the  strata, 
its  rebellious  course  giving  rise  to  the  many  cross  reefs 
which  have  produced  the  bad  rapids,  whirlpools,  and 
Pao-tse  which  infest  this  section.  Whether  this  perversity 
is  due  to  the  fact  of  this  portion  of  the  channel  having 
been  excavated  by  the  Great  Yii,  I  know  not  ;  but  it 
seems  not  improbable,  as  the  course  chosen  is  in  strict 
accordance  with  the  orthodox  rules  that  govern  Chinese 
roadmaking. 

A  fortnight  of  panorama  palls  however  by  its  very  per- 
fection, and  I  was  heartily  glad  to  set  my  foot  once  more  on 
shore  in  Chungking,  to  feel  myself  in  touch  with  the  world, 
and  above  all  to  read  the  newspapers  and  learn  the  war 
news.  In  Cheng-tu  we  had  had  a  bare  telegram  telling  of 
Lord  Roberts'  advance  to  Bloemfontein,  a  happy  surprise 
coming  upon  my  latest  previous  news,  that  of  the  repulse 
at  Spionkop  on  the  2nd  February.  Thus  was  Chungking 
reached  (after  a  long  two  years'  furlough  in  foreign  parts), 


SZECHUAN    REVISITED  169 

via  Ch^ng-tu,  in  forty-seven  days  from  Ichang,  and  at  the 
end  of  a  most  interesting  journey  of  nearly  1,200  miles. 

I  learnt,  coming  down  the  Yangtse  from  Sui-fu,  from 
a  native  who  was  present  on  the  occasion,  full  particulars 
of  Captain  Pottinger's  repulse  of  the  attack  made  upon 
him  at  Chen-hiung-hien  on  the  Yunnan-Kweichow  border 
the  year  before.  I  venture  to  repeat  this  chiefly  on 
account  of  the  Chinese  and  the  lesson  it  teaches,  a  lesson 
greatly  needed  at  a  time  when  the  East  is  overrun  with 
travellers  dependent  upon  unscrupulous  interpreters  for 
all  intercourse  with  the  native  officials  and  with  the  people. 
My  informant  described  how  the  way  was  barred  to 
Captain  Pottinger's  advance  by  200  to  300  armed  men, 
who  fired  guns  and  rolled  stones  down  upon  the  party. 
Captain  Pottinger  warned  the  country  people  that  if  they 
did  not  desist  he  should  use  firearms.  They  did  not 
accept  his  warning,  and  he  shot  three  men  ;  my  informant 
justified  the  shooting  on  the  ground  that  the  captain  had 
no  alternative  but  to  use  force,  and  added  that  his  action 
had  effectually  cleared  the  way  for  all  Europeans  prospect- 
ing or  surveying  in  the  future.  My  informant  denied, 
however,  that  the  people  would  have  injured  Captain 
Pottinger  ;  they  had  no  shot  in  their  guns  and  only 
desired  to  frighten  him  off  their  land,  which  they  feared 
his  injuring  with  his  magical  instruments.  However 
deplorable  this  incident,  it  is  to  be  hoped  it  will  save  us 
from  future  attacks  and  possible  fatal  consequences  ; 
but  the  chmax  to  which  I  wish  to  draw  attention  is  this  : 
the  Kweichow  officials  accused  the  local  gentry  of 
allowing  the  hostile  gathering  to  take  place,  and  ordered 
them  to  provide  an  indemnity  of  1,500  taels  for  the  families 
of  the  sufferers.  A  Wei  Yiian  (deputy)  was  sent  to 
collect  the  money,  and  Captain  Pottinger  sent  his  inter- 
preter to  see  the  money  paid  over.  Result,  according  to 
my  informant,  the  deputy  departed  richer  by  500  and 
the  interpreter  by  1000  taels.  The  latter  became  a  mining 
broker  in  Shanghai,  where  I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing 
him  recently,  elegantly  dressed  and  riding  in  a  brougham. 


170  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Another  traveller's  interpreter,  twenty  years  before, 
managed  to  mulct  the  easy-going  Szechuan  officials  in  the 
towns  he  passed  through  of  12,000  taels  and  now  flourishes 
as  a  rich  Shanghai  landowner. 

Knowing  what  doubtful  characters  many  of  these 
English-speaking  Chinese  are  (Colquhoun's  experience 
may  be  added  to  the  above  instances) ,  would  it  not  be 
well  for  exploring  and  surveying  parties  to  engage  the 
services  of  competent  European  interpreters  ?  There  are 
now  some  six  hundred  Protestant  missionaries  in  Western 
China  ;  should  it  not  be  possible  to  obtain  the  services  of 
some  who  could  be  temporarily  spared  to  aid  in  what  is, 
after  all,  true  Mission  work  ?  A  gentleman  from  the 
China  Inland  Mission  accompanied  Mrs.  Bishop  in  her 
recent  joumeyings  on  the  Tibetan  border.  I  think 
myself  that  a  consul  should  not  be  empowered  to  grant  a 
passport  for  travel  in  the  remote  interior  without  an 
assurance  that  the  applicant  either  speaks  the  language 
himself  or  is  accompanied  by  an  interpreter  of  some 
social  standing.  Had  Captain  Pottinger  been  accom- 
panied by  an  intelligent  interpreter,  capable  of  reasoning 
with  the  people  and  explaining  his  objects,  the  regrettable 
incident  would  probably  not  have  occurred  and  much 
ill-feeling  thereby  aroused  against  Europeans  would  have 
been  avoided. 


YACHTING   IN   THE   CHUSAN 
ARCHIPELAGO 

I 

Not  having  come  across  any  other  account  of  these  Islands  it 
seems  well  to  give  this  to  the  reader.  Although  lacking  the 
later  literary  skill  of  the  writer,  being  written  in  1875  for  a 
Shanghai  newspaper,  it  has  the  breeziness  and  keener  powers 
of  enjoyment  of  comparative  youth. 

The  changes  of  the  seasons  having  once  more  brought 
round  the  glorious  autumn  weather  of  Mid-China,  we 
determined  not  to  let  another  October  pass  without 
taking  advantage  of  the  invitation  held  out  to  us  by 
kindly  nature  in  the  shape  of  smooth  seas,  cloudless 
skies,  and  balmy  airs,  and  by  man  in  the  shape  of  a  fast- 
sailing  pilot  sloop  obligingly  placed  at  our  disposal. 
An  annual  change  from  the  ozoneless  atmosphere  of 
Shanghai  is  now  an  acknowledged  necessity  to  those 
condemned  to  pass  a  summer  on  the  steaming,  muddy 
shores  of  the  Hwang-pu,  and  towards  the  end  of  September 
all  who  can  flit  either  to  the  north  to  Chefoo,  eastwards 
to  Japan,  or  up-country  to  the  land  of  pig  and  pheasant, 
where  long  tramps  through  the  thick  cover  of  the  Western 
Hills  allure  the  sportsman.  We  for  our  part  determined 
to  seek  our  field  of  recreation  amidst  the  land-locked 
seas  of  the  Chusan  Archipelago  and  in  the  to  us  uncommon 
surroundings  of  salt-water.  Our  party  of  four  comprised 
two  dealers  in  the  fragrant  leaf,  one  world-famed  legal 
luminary,  and  an  architect  of  whom  may  be  said  to  all 
who  have  the  good  fortune  to  land  on  the  shores  of  our 
palatial  city,  "  Si  quceris  monumenta,  circumspice."     At 

171 


172  GLEANINGS   FROM    CHINA 

the  last  moment  these  two  latter  unfortunately  retired 
from  the  lists,  and  left  the  merchant  princes  (somewhat 
shorn  of  their  glory)  alone  in  the  field  :  law  and  architec- 
ture claiming  closer  attention  from  their  devotees  than 
decaying  trade.  But  dull  times  for  business  leave  more 
leisure  for  enjoyment,  and  it  is  not  till  the  desk  and  the 
tasting-cup  cease  to  claim  his  attention  that  a  China 
resident  has  time  to  look  around  him. 

On  the  morning  of  the  26th  September,  just  past  mid- 
night, after  dining  at  one  of  the  palatial  monuments  above 
referred  to, — we  stepped  from  the  jetty  on  board  the 
centre-board  yacht  Fearless,  a  clear  starlit  sky  lighting 
us  on  our  way  to  join  our  vessel,  which  was  awaiting  us  at 
anchor  below  the  shipping.  An  hour's  beat  through  the 
harbour  transferred  us  with  our  belongings  to  our  tem- 
porary home  in  the  Ruby,  and  we  at  once  turned  into  the 
comfortable  berths  which  surround  her  roomy  cabin. 
Early  dawn  found  us  running  down  the  Yangtse  at  eight 
knots  an  hour  with  a  fair  northerly  breeze  and  a  fair  tide 
under  our  bottom.  We  tumbled  up  on  deck  and  saw  the 
sun  rise  clear  and  bright  out  of  the  Pacific  and  felt  ourselves 
really  afloat,  all  care  left  behind  when  we  rounded  the 
Yangtse  Cape  and  set   a  straight  course   for  Gutzlaff. 

M even  tried  to  sing  the  "  Rover  is  free  "   (from 

dinner  parties  if  from  nothing  else),  and  "  Our  Guardian 
Angel  on  the  wing,"  a  new  song  of  his  own  composing 
"  now  shortly  to  appear." 

Just  above  the  lightship  we  passed  the  inward  bound 
French  mail  at  anchor  waiting  for  water  to  cross  the  flats. 
We  regretted  she  had  not  arrived  in  Shanghai  the  evening 
before,  when  she  was  due,  but  were  consoled  with  the 
reflection  that  for  a  week  to  come  neither  letters  nor 
telegrams  could  trouble  us.  After  passing  the  lightship  we 
met  the  usual  heavy  swell  rolling  in  from  the  east  and 
descended  to  a  rechercht  breakfast  of  beefsteak  and  curry, 
and  smoking  our  first  cigar  revelled  in  the  full  enjoyment 
of  a  Sunday  morning's  lie-off.  The  dolce  far  niente  grew 
somewhat  tedious,  however,  as  nearing  Gutzlaff,  about 


YACHTING  IN  THE  CHUSAN  ARCHIPELAGO    173 

ten  o'clock,  the  wind  dropped  almost  to  a  calm, 
and  we  found  a  strong  flood  tide  setting  us  rapidly 
into  the  dangerous  Hangchow  bay.  The  hot  sun 
and  flapping  sails  drove  us  below  to  overhaul  our 
stock  of  literature,  of  which  enough  had  been  provided 
to  last  a  voyage  round  the  Cape  :  it  was  pleasant  while 
thus  lolling  in  the  cool  cabin  to  read  of  Mr.  Rae's  adven- 
tures in  Lapland,  where  cold  and  mosquitoes  seem  to 
have  limited  the  pleasure  of  the  tour  solely  to  the  sus- 
taining and  overcoming  of  difficulties.  After  a  good 
dinner  we  returned  to  the  deck  and  found  ourselves  still 
off  Gutzlaff,  but  at  three  o'clock  the  calm  ended,  and  a 
breeze  set  in  from  the  north-west.  We  set  our  squaresail 
and  bowled  along  merrily  for  Chee-shan  (chart-name  Chin- 
san)  about  twenty  miles  distant,  but  as  we  neared  the 
land  the  wind  fell  light,  and  we  could  do  little  more  than 
stem  the  tide  :  indeed  in  this  short  run  of  seventeen 
miles  we  had  been  set  by  the  ebb  seven  miles  to  the  east- 
ward of  our  course. 

On  rounding  Pennell  Point  we  found  a  fleet  of  junks  at 
anchor,  awaiting  the  flood.  The  scenery  looked  far  more 
promising  upon  a  close  view,  such  as  one  never  enjoys 
from  the  decks  of  land-faring  steamers.  From  the 
distance  these  islands  of  rugged  outline  appear  to  be 
nothing  but  barren  rocks,  but  we  now  saw  snug  valleys 
with  villages  ensconced  in  bamboo  woods  crowned  by 
steep  pine-covered  slopes.  As  we  sailed  past  the  bay  a 
small  joss-house,  picturesquely  situated  on  a  prominent 
cliff,  shewed  that  these  rude  islanders  had  carried  the 
civilisation  of  the  mainland  with  them  and  reassured  us 
as  to  any  doubts  we  entertained  as  to  the  piratical 
character  of  the  people,  and  the  risk  we  might  incur  in 
trusting  ourselves  among  them  ;  for  we  had  determined 
to  commence  our  explorations  at  once  upon  our  first  day 
out  by  landing  and  exploring  this,  the  largest  island  of  the 
group.  Casting  anchor  on  the  southern  shore  and  avoiding 
the  mud  flats  which  now  fill  all  the  bays  of  the  islands 
hereabouts,  we  directed  the  dingy  to  a  low  rocky  promon- 


174  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

tory  and  jumped  ashore.  Clambering  over  the  water 
worn  rocks,  the  strata  in  which,  almost  vertical,  were 
wonderfully  marked,  the  various  rocks  shewing  in  broad 
dark  bands  upon  a  light  grey  ground,  we  reached  an  almost 
perpendicular  slope,  up  which  we  clambered  some  hundred 
feet,  holding  on  by  our  hands  to  the  long  grass  and  dwarf 
shrubs  which  entirely  covered  the  surface.  On  the  top 
of  the  promontory  we  found  a  wood  of  small  fir  trees, 
through  which  we  passed  on  to  one  of  the  main  ridges, 
tiny  gardens  of  sweet  potatoes  and  ground  nuts  sprinkled 
over  the  more  sheltered  and  fertile  spots  :  here  about 
500  feet  above  the  sea  we  looked  down  into  one  of  the  most 
secluded  valleys  in  the  world.  Opposite  to  us  and  to  the 
north  rose  a  steep  ridge  crowned  with  bare  grey  granite 
peaks,  amongst  which  a  communicative  but  hardly  intel- 
ligible native  informed  us  was  a  h5-sheng  or  hermit ;  in 
the  valley  below,  a  few  thatched  roofs  almost  hidden  in 
trees  and  surrounded  by  miniature  paddy  fields  shewed 
that  this  apparently  barren  island  held  probably  as  many 
inhabitants  as  the  soil  would  support. 

Nothing  is  more  striking  at  first  than  the  steepness  of  all 
the  mountains  and  islands,  (the  two  being  expressed  in 
one  word  in  Chinese,  viz.,  shan)  on  the  China  coast : 
eruptive  granite  in  perpendicular,  weather-worn  rocks 
rising  from  a  steep  talus  forming  a  monotonously  rugged 
picture  from  the  distance.  After  enjoying  the  view  down 
the  river-like  channel  between  Chin-shan  and  Tai-shan 
and  the  Fisherman's  Group,  the  fairest  entrance  to  the 
Shanghai  waters  for  a  steamer  bound  from  the  south, 
the  slanting  rays  of  the  sun  warned  us  to  descend,  which 
we  did  by  a  rugged  goat  path  overhanging  a  village, 
perched  just  above  a  little  rocky  cove  with  a  lovely  steep- 
sloping  sand-beach.  Before  we  did  so,  however,  our 
nautical  mentor  remarked  how  valuable  would  be  a 
light  on  Steep  Island  to  point  out  the  Pass,  and  as  a 
rendezvous  for  pilots  in  a  spot  before  the  dangers  begin. 

Passing  a  miniature  plateau  upon  which  was  an  old 
lady  carefully  irrigating  her  cabbages,  plant  by  plant, 


YACHTING  IN  THE  CHUSAN  ARCHIPELAGO    175 

we  stopped  to  admire  the  scene  ;  she  took  no  notice  of  us 
until  she  got  to  the  end  of  the  row,  when,  raising  herself 
up,  our  uncouth  barbarian  forms  met  her  affrighted  gaze. 
It  was  painful  to  see  the  horrified  expression  on  her  face  : 
had  a  tiger  suddenly  appeared  and  been  waiting  to  spring 
upon  her  she  could  not  have  trembled  worse.     Hesitating 

how  to  re-assure  her,  M suggested  we  should  retreat 

and  thus  reheve  her  of  our  presence  ;  we  did  so  and  left 
her  standing.  Descending  to  the  little  cove  we  hailed  the 
dingy  to  pull  off  for  us,  and  meanwhile  enjoyed  our  first 
dip  in  the  briny,  the  tiny  rollers  tumbling  in  with  the 
flood  tide,  A  small  freshwater  stream,  now  almost  dry, 
here  enters  the  bay  ;  we  pulled  off,  had  a  good  dinner,  and 
at  eight  o'clock,  too  tired  even  to  go  on  deck  and  admire 
the  clear  starlight  sky,  turned  in  and  enjoyed  the  sleep  of 
the  blessed. 

At  four  o'clock  on  the  following  morning,  September 
27,  our  wakeful  skipper  struck  a  light  and  roused  us  up  : 
we  followed  him  on  deck  and  enjoyed  a  glorious  night 
scene  such  as  Cuyp  might  have  painted.  The  lofty 
island  looming  black  and  shapeless  half-way  up  the 
sky,  clear  with  innumerable  stars  ;  over  one  of  the  cols, 
or  depressions  between  two  peaks,  the  old  moon,  now  less 
than  two  days  from  her  end,  with  the  new  moon  shining 
in  her  arms,  a  light  fair  summer  air  blowing  off  the  land. 
We  up  anchor,  put  the  bonnet  on  the  foresail,  shook  the 
reef  out  of  the  mainsail  and  got  under  weigh  for  Tai-shan 
Channel,  and,  with  the  tide  against  us  and  hghtest  of  airs 
under  our  port  quarter,  it  was  eight  o'clock  before  we 
were  off  the  entrance  to  the  passage.  A  lovely  picture  ! 
high  land  all  round,  and  no  opening  visible  through  which 
we  might  force  our  way  ;  yet,  that  there  was  a  passage 
there  was  shewn  by  the  fact  of  a  fleet  of  fishing  junks, 
numbering  some  hundreds,  being  engaged  in  slowly 
beating  their  way  out  and  working  to  the  north-west. 
Immediately  on  our  right  was  Gan-su,  a  group  of  rocky 
islets  round  which  the  tide  was  rushing  furiously.  Farther 
off  and  about  two  miles  distant  ahead,  at  the  foot  of  a 


176  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

wide  bay  in  the  island  of  Tai-shan,  was  a  large  Chinese 
village,  which  the  mirage  exaggerated  into  a  magnificent 
city,  reminding  us  forcibly  of  Macao.  Looked  at  care- 
fully through  the  glass  the  illusion  was  still  more  striking  : 
the  junks  in  the  foreground  were  unaffected  as  also  the 
hills  in  the  rear,  the  effect  of  the  mirage  being  confined 
to  just  the  water  horizon.  We  passed  slowly  on  until 
one  of  the  horns  of  the  bay  quickly  shut  in  the  picture, 
disclosing  to  us  another  of  the  secluded  valleys  which 
form  the  charm  of  these  mountain-islands.  We  lay  on 
deck  and  watched  the  panorama  gradually  unroUing  itself 
in  the  river-like  strait,  as  we  scudded  over  the  rushing  tide, 
gaff  topsail  and  squaresail  set,  little  more  than  two  knots 
over  the  ground.  "  Yes,"  we  said  :  "  in  our  eighty  or  a 
hundred  thousand  miles  of  steamboat  travel  we  have  not 
seen  as  much  as  we  see  to-day.  Give  us  a  clean,  steady 
sailing  yacht  and  give  your  soot  and  engine  grease  to 
those  who  can't  take  gales  and  calms  as  they  come." 

Often  as  we  have  glanced  at  these  islands  from  steamer 
decks,  who  would  have  led  us  to  think  that  a  closer  inspec- 
tion would  reveal  so  much  natural  beauty  ?  the  one  is  a 
fading  photograph,  the  other  a  finished  painting.  Small 
fir  plantations  here  covered  the  hill  sides,  the  young  trees, 
evidently  planted  by  the  hand  of  man,  growing  down  to 
the  edges  of  the  cliffs.  Happy  villages  with  here  and  there 
a  junk  hauled  up  ashore  dotted  the  coves  ;  in  one  bay, 
a  breakwater  of  stones  had  been  laid  across,  apparently 
with  the  view  of  retaining  the  alluvial  mud,  and  gaining 
fresh  paddy  fields  from  the  here  not  jealous  sea. 

At  the  exit  from  the  pass — about  five  miles  long — ridges 
of  rocks  and  islets  stretched  off  from  the  south-west  point 
of  Kue  Shan,  one  jagged  row  behind  the  other,  like  set 
pieces  in  Fra  Diavolo  scenery  :  one  rugged  islet  forming 
a  complete  arch,  through  which  the  tide  was  rushing, 
appeared  marv^ellously  effective  from  our  point  of  view. 
We  now  approached  the  east  coast  of  the  big  historical 
island  of  Chusan  :  green  and  lofty,  with  rich  tree-decked 
valleys  and  smiling  farmsteads.     Is  it  Chauvinism  or  is  it 


YACHTING  IN  THE  CHUSAN  ARCHIPELAGO    177 

only  a  natural  longing  to  live  in  a  trading  port  amongst 
hills  and  salt  water  rather  than  on  the  mud-flats  of  the 
Yangtse  Delta,  that  we  wish  Chusan  had  been  retained 
after  its  capture,  and  made  a  second  Hongkong,  and 
Shanghai  left  undisturbed  in  its  native  dirt  and  ugliness  ? 
What  gardens,  what  parks,  what  roads,  what  orchards, 
what  yachting  we  should  have  had  and  all  combined  with 
the  sight  of  our  tea  ships  in  Ting-hai  harbour  loading 
before  our  office  windows  !  Does  it  not  seem  as  though  in 
all  our  wars  we  had  allowed  half  the  fruits  of  victory  to  be 
snatched  from  our  grasp  ?  This  is  the  excited  English- 
man's complaint  all  over  the  world  ;  perhaps  an  impartial 
neutral  would  say  our  poUticians  had  shewn  statesman- 
like prudence  in  withstanding  the  clamour  of  their  nation- 
als, or  if  anything,  erred  on  the  side  of  being  too  grasping. 
At  any  rate  had  Chusan  remained  British,  all  Shanghaiites, 
come  whence  they  may,  might  equally  have  enjoyed  the 
benefit. 

Unable  to  live  here  altogether  we  at  once  decided  that  a 
big  and  comfortable  yacht  was  the  only  consolation  we 
could  accept : — freedom  to  gaze  where  not  allowed  to  Hve. 
If  the  Shanghai  Yacht  Club  does  not  own  one  or  more  fine 
sea-going  craft  before  next  summer  comes  round  it  will 
be  our  misfortune  and  not  our  fault.  But  which  is  Pootoo 
of  the  blue  land  now  rising  on  our  port  bow  ?  Is  it  not 
yonder  conical  peak  ?  A  reference  to  the  chart  shows  this 
to  be  Choo-chia-shan,  1,164  feet  high  :  the  double  peak 
to  the  left  is  Pootoo,  our  immediate  destination.  At 
noon  we  ran  under  the  north  shore  of  the  island,  a  barren 
rugged  prospect  until  the  telescope  revealed  fine  groves 
of  trees  in  the  ravines  with  temples  perched  in  most 
picturesque  spots  :  we  coasted  along  through  the  smooth 
Lien-hwa-yang  or  Water-lily  Sea  (so  called  we  are  told 
from  the  sudden  gusts  of  wind  blowing  down  from  the 
mountain  of  Chusan  opposite  raising  myriads  of  wavelets, 
reminding  one  of  a  lake  thick  with  water-lilies)  rounded 
the  north-west  point  and  anchored  in  eleven  fathoms 
of  water  off  the  causeway  on  the  south  side.      Wading 

N 


178  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

on  the  mud  flats  which  fill  the  larger  bays  were  men 
shrimping,  pushing  their  nets  before  them  just  as  on 
the  south  coast  of  England. 

Landing  in  the  dingy  on  one  of  the  rocky  promontories 
we  clambered  with  difficulty  across  the  rocks  to  reach 
the  summit :  upon  this  was  a  large  stone  with  "  Great 
Spirit  of  the  Southern  Sea,"  engraved  in  fine  Chinese 
characters  upon  it  and  facing  it  an  arch  formed  of  two 
natural  uprights  but  the  cross  piece  placed  and  cemented 
by  man.  In  fact  the  whole  island  has  been  brought  under 
literary  rule,  and  no  conspicuous  rock  is  without  its  appro- 
priate legend  :  every  hollow  has  its  grove  and  temple,  every 
height  its  traces  of  Buddha's  presence  in  endless  granite 
masses  of  curiously  different  shapes.  Crossing  over  to  the 
road  to  which  the  causeway  leads,  we  passed  under  several 
arches  and  Ting-tze,  mounting  an  ascending  stone  path- 
way till  we  came  to  a  temple  with  a  zig-zag  and  conse- 
quently propitious  entrance,  where  foreigners  often  stay 
on  their  visits  to  the  island,  Ningpo,  only  fifty  miles 
off,  contributing  its  quota  of  visitors  each  summer  ;  one 
lady  and  a  gentleman  had  left  the  day  before,  and  another 
family  who  had  stayed  there  two  and  a  half  months  were 
leaving  that  day. 

The  traces  of  European  occupancy  were  but  too  visible 
in  scraps  of  newspaper,  and  those  little  sundries  which 
garnish  the  barbarian  picnic.  Leaving  them  we  tried  to 
mount  to  the  second  highest  peak  in  the  island  (700  feet) , 
and  passing  through  the  extensive  Lotus  temple,  so  called 
from  its  lake  of  lotus  flowers,  which  latter  entirely  hide  the 
water,  we  began  to  mount  a  steep,  rugged  path,  forcing 
our  way  through  a  thick  jungle  composed  chiefly  of  dwarf 
trees  and  evergreen  shrubs  cut  down  each  year  for  fuel. 
Such  a  dense  maquis  we  imagine  nothing  in  Europe  outside 
of  Corsica  can  show.  From  this  we  descended  to  the  sea 
shore,  near  which  is  a  marvellous  well,  situated  in  the 
depths  of  a  dark  and  cool  cavern  ;  here  we  drew  some  fine 
fresh  water,  and  mixing  it  with  our  Dagonay  drank  to  the 
Guardian  Angel,  the  theme  of  the  aforesaid  song  ;  hence 


YACHTING  IN  THE  CHUSAN  ARCHIPELAGO    179 

down  farther  to  a  lovely  sand-beach  upon  which  the 
rollers  of  the  broad  Pacific  were  drowsily  breaking. 
A  most  delightful  swim  and  a  roll  in  the  breakers  gave 
us  a  new  pleasure  such  as  was  alone  worth  the  whole 
journey.  After  this  a  good  dinner,  and  a  smoke  on  the 
clean  quarter-deck,  while  gazing  at  the  Milky  Way, 
completed  another  delightful  day.  While  at  the  chief 
temple  we  bought  a  coloured  illustrated  map  of  the 
island  for  thirty  cash  (about  a  penny),  shewing  groups  of 
brightly  painted  temples  drawn  in  perspective,  glowing 
amidst  a  mass  of  impossible  mountain  peaks. 


II 

At  early  dawn  on  the  following  day,  the  28th  September, 
after  our  usual  morning  dip,  we  landed  with  a  view  to 
completing  our  examination  of  Poo-too,  taking  a  coolie 
to  carry  our  tiffin  with  us.  As  the  sun  was  rising  we 
mounted  the  fine  stone  pathway  which  leads  over  the 
first  gap,  past  the  Peh-hua-shan,  or  Hill  of  a  Hundred 
Flowers,  through  a  grove  of  magnificent  old  trees  which 
arch  over  the  weed-covered  stone  stairway.  Hence  the 
road  descends  into  a  wooded  valley  in  which  is  a  large, 
handsome  temple,  covering  a  wide  extent  of  ground,  with 
an  approach  across  the  usual  fish-ponds  and  bridges, 
and  through  archways  and  memorial  towers  now  all  fast 
falling  into  decay  :  behind  this  temple  is  a  small  street 
of  shops  where  incense-beads  and  refreshments  to  supply 
the  wants  of  pilgrims  are  sold.  Perfect  quiet  reigns 
everywhere,  owing  to  the  absence  of  women  and  children, 
none  of  the  former  being  permitted  to  stay  over  a  single 
night  in  the  island.  Hence  along  a  path,  which  would 
pass  muster  as  a  country  lane  at  home,  being  lined  with 
trees  and  green  hedgerows,  to  another  temple,  situated  in 
a  magnificent  grove  of  evergreen  trees.  This  temple  is  of 
grand  proportions,  sits  nobly  on  rising  ground  backed  by 
a  steep  mountain,  and  through  the  foliage  the  blue  water 


i8o  GLEANINGS   FROM   CHINA 

of  the  bay  sparkled  in  the  sunshine,  while  the  ceaseless 
roar  of  the  surf  without  formed  a  fine  bass  accompaniment 
to  the  subdued  drum-taps  of  the  priests  worshipping 
within.  Hence  a  steep  path  of  almost  endless  flights  of 
steps  leads  to  the  mountain  of  the  Celestial  Lamp. 

About  one-third  of  our  way  up  we  rested  in  a  small 
grove,  under  which  were  some  stone  seats  and  a  small 
stone  table  with  a  fine  well  of  spring  water.  Here  an  old 
hermit  made  his  appearance,  a  wrinkled  parchment  face 
with  dishevelled  hair  and  long  goatee  beard,  clothed  in 
the  dirty  loose  garment  of  the  bonze,  a  perfect  model  for 
an  ivory  curio  or  netsuke.  The  old  man,  upon  our 
invitation  to  talk,  came  out  and  squatted  on  the  stone 
table,  taking  up  a  true  Buddha  attitude,  his  feet  crossed 
over  his  knees,  the  soles  uppermost  :  this  accompanied 
with  many  foldings  of  the  hands  and  constant  ejaculations 
of  Oh-mi,  which  we  at  first  took  to  be  the  groans  of  a 
rheumatic  old  man,  contorting  himself  into  this  uncom- 
fortable position,  but  which  we  ultimately  distinguished 
as  an  imprecation  to  Buddha,  an  abbreviation  in  fact  of 
the  ever  present  0-mi-to-Fo.  Thus  interlarding  his  con- 
versation with  perpetual  Oh-mis,  jerked  in  at  intervals, 
he  informed  us  that  he  was  sixty-seven  years  of  age, 
that  he  came  from  Tai-chow  in  Fukien,  that  he  had  been 
thirty  years  on  the  island,  that  he  lived  only  to  "  shiu- 
jen  "  i.e.  to  perfect  the  inner  man,  and  that  we  ought  to  shiu- 
jen  and  eat  "  su  "  i.e.  to  abstain  from  animal  food,  if  we 
would  be  happy.  We  told  him  that  there  were  Europeans 
who  ate  "  su  "  also,  which  he  hardly  believed,  but  said  he 
would  like  to  go  to  Europe,  that  he  could  get  together 
seventy  dollars  or  even  a  hundred,  and  he  really  appeared 
as  if  he  would  get  up  and  go  with  us  to  Shanghai  at  least, 
especially  when  we  told  him  that  so  far  we  could  grant 
him  a  free  passage.  But  we  feared  the  responsibility  of 
risking  such  a  holy  life  in  our  possession  and  had  to  retreat 
from  our  offer.  We  handed  him  a  biscuit  which,  after 
long  protestations  on  our  part  that  it  contained  neither 
butter    nor    animal    fat,    he    condescended    to    accept  : 


YACHTING  IN  THE  CHUSAN  ARCHIPELAGO    i8i 

carefully  poising  it  on  the  thumb  and  two  fingers  of  his 
left  hand,  he  brought  it  up  to  a  level  with  his  eyes  with 
a  prolonged  theatrical  gesture,  holding  up  his  right  hand 
in  the  act  of  prayer  in  a  way  which  an  irreverent  member 
of  our  party  compared  to  taking  a  sight.  This  perform- 
ance leisurely  accomplished  he  munched  a  portion  monkey 
fashion,  accepted  a  half  dollar  shao-hsiang, — to  burn 
incense — blessed  us  in  a  long  prayer,  and  we  renewed  our 
climb,  bodily  and  mentally  invigorated. 

On  the  summit,  700  feet  above  the  sea,  is  a  stone  tower, 
the  door  of  which  was  locked  and  on  which  is  a  glass 
lantern,  which,  as  being  one  of  the  easternmost  peaks, 
would,  had  it  a  better  light,  form  a  fine  mark  to  mariners 
approaching  the  Chusan  Archipelago  by  night.  Hence  we 
descended  to  the  western  shore  and  passing  through 
some  fine  trees  sat  ourselves  down  by  a  broad  rock  to 
discuss  our  well-earned  tilBn  ;  the  land  falling  almost 
perpendicularly  at  our  feet  to  the  Sea  of  Water  Lilies 
with  the  high  eastern  range  of  Chusan  rising  steep  from 
the  opposite  shore.  A  glorious  site,  a  lovely  day,  the 
ever-present  Bass  and  a  fragrant  cheroot  combined  to 
fill  our  enjoyment.  We  seemed  to  forget  all  business  cares 
and  could  hardly  believe  it  possible  that  we  had  left  the 
whirl  of  Shanghai  not  three  days  back. 

After  our  rest  we  adjourned  to  another  fine  temple 
in  the  woods,  where  was  a  very  hospitable  and  talkative 
priest,  who  gave  us  roseleaf  tea  to  drink  and  who  plied 
us  unceasingly  with  questions  about  foreign  affairs  and 
reUgion.  He  seemed  particularly  exercised  in  regard  to 
the  Yunnan  imbroglio,  and  said.  Why  not  settle  matters 
amicably  ?  Here  is  China,  placing  the  big  teapot  in  the 
middle  of  the  table,  and  here,  placing  teacups,  are  Eng- 
land, France  and  America.  Why  should  brethren  quarrel 
under  one  heaven  ?  We  had  to  reassure  him  also  on  the 
regard  entertained  by  foreigners  towards  the  Buddhist 
religion,  telling  him  that  amongst  barbarians  the  mass 
revered  the  God  alike  of  Buddhists  and  Christians.  Evi- 
dently the  Shen-pao  (a  newspaper  published  in  Chinese 


i82  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

but  under  English  auspices  in  Shanghai)  is  inserting  the 
thin  end  of  the  wedge  into  these  far-off  retreats  and 
awakening  brains  dormant  for  centuries  ;  whether  the 
leaven  will  work  and  what  the  product  of  the  ferment 
will  be  time  will  shew  :  certainly  there  is  a  movement  in 
the  Chinese  mind  which  foreshadows  a  change,  but  a 
change  that  will  scarcely  lead  to  Christianity,  but  rather  to 
the  embracing  of  practical  foreign  knowledge  and  possibly 
the  overthrow  of  all  faith  whatever.  A  dollar  for  incense 
ended  our  visit. 

We  made  our  way  along  the  ridge  of  the  eastern 
promontory,  across  the  neck  of  which  is  a  curious 
guUey  filled  with  loose  white  sand,  and  on  by  a  romantic 
path  winding  along  the  side  of  the  steep  hill  at  a  height  of 
some  300  feet  above  the  sea,  to  the  temple  of  the  Kwanyin 
Pu-sa,  the  Goddess  of  Mariners.  The  temple  is  situated  just 
above  a  narrow  gorge  or  chine  :  from  which  a  steep  stair- 
way with  stone  balustrade  leads  to  a  small  joss-house  built 
right  across  the  black  cleft  up  which  the  breakers  come 
moaning  :  here,  guarded  by  a  life  rail  giving  the  platform 
the  appearance  of  a  big  cage,  were  two  worshippers,  a 
man  come  from  Yangchow  to  pray  for  the  recovery  of  his 
wife,  whom  we  saw  reposing  under  a  wadded  coverlet 
in  the  temple  above,  accompanied  by  a  priest  after  whom 
he  was  reciting  a  kind  of  litany  ;  behind  them  a  big  bronze 
censer  was  smoking  with  the  ashes  of  paper  sycee.  We  left 
this  romantic  spot,  strolled  back  to  our  bathing-place  of 
the  previous  day,  and  enjoyed  another  glorious  swim 
just  as  the  sun  set  behind  the  overhanging  hills.  A  frugal 
dinner  on  board,  a  cheroot  under  the  starlit  sky,  a  decision 
upon  our  plan  to  attack  Chokey  on  the  following  day, 
and  rolled  up  in  our  blankets  on  deck  we  finished  the  third 
day  of  this  most  enjoyable  trip. 

Up  at  dawn,  a  few  late  stars  still  visible,  Michaelmas 
day  found  us  weighing  anchor,  when  two  tacks  against  a 
light  south-east  breeze  took  us  across  to  Choo-chia-shan 
or  Chokey,  as  our  worthy  skipper  denominated  it,  about 
three   miles   distant.     After  anchoring   in   six   fathoms. 


YACHTING  IN  THE  CHUSAN  ARCHIPELAGO    183 

about  half  a  mile  from  the  shore,  we  pulled  the  dingy 
through  the  shallow  water,  and  landed  shortly  after 
seven  o'clock  upon  a  promising  sand  beach  upon  which 
small  fishing  boats  were  hauled  up,  a  village  with  a  bright 
looking  joss-house  crowning  the  slope  above.  Passing 
over  a  sandy  gap  uniting  what  had  evidently  once  been 
two  islands  we  descended  past  terraced  paddy  fields  and 
tree-surrounded  farms,  along  the  banks  of  a  bright 
fresh-water  stream  on  to  a  sandy  fiat  at  the  head  of  a  fine 
bay,  embraced  between  two  rocky  promontories.  Here  is 
the  site  for  our  destined  sanitarium  !  we  agreed.  A  rich 
island,  well  inhabited,  well  supplied,  well  watered  and 
equally  as  accessible  as  Poo-too,  with  far  finer  walks, 
richer  scenery,  and  marvellous  vegetation.  Passing  on 
in  the  hope  of  ascending  Chokey  Peak,  a  most  conspicuous, 
apparently  conical  mountain,  whose  blue  top  1,200  feet 
high  loomed  over  the  lower  hills  in  the  foreground,  we 
mounted  a  fine  path  which  led  round  the  promontory, 
coasting  along  at  a  height  of  some  200  feet  above  the  sea. 
This  path  led  us  through  by  far  the  most  romantic  scenery 
we  had  yet  visited  ;  to  our  left  the  blue  Pacific  ;  at  our 
feet  rolling  hills,  their  lower  slopes  covered  with  a  luxurious 
growth  of  semi-tropical  shrubs,  their  summits  with 
dwarf  pine  forests,  past  ravines  and  chines,  a  lovely 
seaside  walk. 

We  descended  at  last  into  a  narrow,  wooded  valley, 
at  the  foot  of  which  was  a  village  embedded  in  trees 
with  fishing  boats  hauled  up  on  the  sands  beneath,  and 
we  determined  to  strike  inland  up  a  ravine  to  the  right, 
following  the  boulder-lined  stream  up  past  terraces  of 
paddy  fields,  which  wound  round  into  a  secluded  valley 
far  up  amongst  the  hiUs,  the  slopes  on  either  side  covered 
with  evergreen  shrubs  and  pine  trees,  with  here  and  there 
huge  naked  granite  boulders  obtruding.  Striking  off  up 
a  ridge  to  the  left  through  a  village  embedded  in  tabor 
trees  and  small  fields  of  sweet  potato  and  buckwheat, 
separated  by  hedges  of  palms  and  bamboo,  we  ascended 
another  lateral   spur  and,  after  struggling   successfully 


i84  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

through  a  thick  cover  of  arbutus,  rhododendron,  azalea, 
and  camelHa  trees,  we  arrived  on  the  ridge,  when  the 
most  striking  scene  presented  to  us  throughout  our  whole 
trip  burst  suddenly  into  view.  Standing  on  a  ridge  some 
four  hundred  feet  high,  we  looked  down  into  a  bright, 
blue  lake-like  expanse  of  sea,  from  the  opposite  shores  of 
which  and  rising  directly  out  of  the  water  rose  Chokey 
Peak  to  a  height  of  1,200  feet — green  and  wooded  to  within 
100  feet  of  the  water,  whence  the  land  fell  in  perpendicular 
red  cliffs.  The  head  of  the  bay  we  could  not  see,  and  not 
knowing  at  first  whether  we  were  facing  a  channel  or  only 
an  inlet  we  walked  along  until  we  found  it  to  be  a  deep 
fjord-like  bay — Bluewater  Bay — as  we  would  have  it 
henceforth  known.  Imagine  a  sheet  of  water  one  mile 
and-a-half  long  by  half-a-mile  wide  :  at  the  sea  end  the 
open  Pacific  ;  the  two  long  sides  lofty  hills  and  precipices, 
and  on  the  opposite  narrow  or  land  side  a  dark  pebble 
beach.     The  measured  wavelets  crowned  by  whitening 

crests    throughout    the    bay — dvniS/xov  xu/xaruv  yeXa^fxa.      To 

reach  this  beach  we  descended  a  steep  path  through  a 
fine  forest  of  lofty  trees,  catching  glimpses  of  the  water 
through  their  boughs  until  we  at  last  landed  on  the  shores 
of  this  remote  and  secluded  sea. 

On  our  right  towered  Chokey  Peak,  high,  steep, 
and  almost  inaccessible,  on  our  left  the  ridge  we 
had  just  surmounted  ;  before  us  the  ocean  with 
the  isles  Peh-ting  and  Tung-ting  just  visible  on  the 
horizon.  It  was  a  lovely  summer's  day  with  a  light 
south-east  breeze  blowing  and  a  gentle  surf  murmur- 
ing on  the  pebbly  shore.  To  doff  our  clothes  and  rush 
to  the  soft  embrace  of  the  sportive  waves  was  an  instinct 
with  all  of  us,  and  five  minutes  later  found  us  calmly 
floating  just  outside  the  breakers  on  the  bosom  of  the  blue 
sea.  In  this  fine  ozonic  air  the  sun,  which  in  Shanghai 
at  this  hour  (11  a.m.)  would  have  called  for  umbrellas 
and  pith-hats,  had  no  other  effect  than  pleasantly  to  warm 
our  bodies  as,  unprovided  with  towels,  we  basked  in  its 
rays  on  the  beach  :  tiffin  was  immediately  produced,  and 


YACHTING  IN  THE  CHUSAN  ARCHIPELAGO   185 

as  we  ate,  we  felt  happy  as  kings,  monarchs  for  the  mo- 
ment of  all  we  surveyed,  not  a  soul  in  sight,  nor  sound 
except  that  of  the  surf  below  us  and  the  murmuring  trees 
above  us.  Here,  we  said,  is  the  Earthly  Paradise  which 
our  sanitarium  seekers  have  for  two  years  sought  in  vain 
amidst  the  mud-set  islands  of  our  estuary  !  Here  the 
Yangtse  holds  back  arrested  and  turns  his  muddy  waves 
to  flatter  shores.  Not  a  speck  or  trace  of  the  hitherto 
aU  pervading  mud  was  visible,  but  a  perfect  pebbly  beach 
with  sandy  bottom,  while  shady  walks  and  lofty  slopes 
invited  the  loiterer.  The  Chinese  appear  all  to  congregate 
towards  the  opposite  or  western  shores  of  the  island, 
leaving  Bluewater  Bay  to  nature  and  solitude.  We  had 
now  spent  the  best  part  of  the  day  in  reaching  only  the 
foot  of  Chokey  mountain,  and  we  decided  that  steep  and 
rugged  as  he  was  with  no  paths  visible  it  would  be  too 
much  to  attempt  him  to-day  :  so  we  set  out  to  cross  to  the 
western  side  through  a  flat  plain,  where  once  flowed  the 
sea,  but  now  endyked  and  devoted  to  the  universal  paddy. 
Resting  for  a  time  in  a  pine  wood  which  covered  one  of 
the  slopes  on  our  left,  a  friendly  old  farmer  and  his  wife 
brought  us  a  jar  of  fine  spring  water  and  attempted  a 
disjointed  conversation  in  the  Chokey  lingo. 


Ill 

Our  siesta  under  the  pine  trees  at  an  end,  turning  our 
back  upon  Bluewater  Bay  we  descended  the  open  valley, 
crossing  the  island  to  the  shallow  mud-flats  which  extend 
along  the  western  shore.  This  valley  is  richly  cultivated 
with  paddy  and  buckwheat,  smiling  farms  dotted  among 
the  woods  which  line  the  slopes.  A  small  eminence 
shewed  us  the  bay  gleaming  in  the  sunshine  with  innumer- 
able islets  in  the  foreground  and  the  distant  mountains 
of  the  mainland  beyond.  Out  of  the  bay  itself  appeared 
to  rise  an  encampment  of  small  haystacks,  the  use  of 
which  we  were  at  first  at  a  loss  to  divine,  until  we  remem- 


i86  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

bered  that  one  of  the  most  valuable  products  of  these 
islands  is  salt.  On  reaching  the  shore  we  found  the  tide 
had  gone  out,  and  as  far  as  the  eye  could  see  it  was  one 
vast  sheet  of  mud  dotted  with  the  aforesaid  haystacks. 
The  mud  was  hard  though  wet,  and  we  walked  out  to  one 
of  the  nearest  moundlets,  a  mud  platform  (raised  some 
three  feet  above  the  sea  bottom,  which  there  apparently  is 
at  high-water  only  just  covered),  at  one  end  of  it  a  thatch 
covered  mound  which  we  at  first  took  for  a  mud  hut,  all 
around  shallow  wooden  trays,  about  four  feet  by  two, 
holding  brine  drying  in  the  sun.  No  one  was  near  and  we 
walked  on  for  some  distance  before  meeting  a  man  willing 
to  explain  to  us  the  process  ;  it  turned  out  that  the  flat 
mud  platform  was  a  shallow  filter,  made  by  beating  down 
the  mud  into  a  firm  bowl-shaped  depression  upon  which 
the  seawater  is  poured.  In  the  bottom  of  this  depression 
is  placed  a  layer  of  straw  and  above  that  one  of  rather 
loosely  packed  earth  which  is  smoothed  over  level  with 
the  rest  of  the  platform.  From  the  bottom  of  the  filter  a 
bamboo  tube  piercing  one  of  the  sides  leads  to  a  kang, 
the  receptacle  of  the  filtered  brine.  The  mud  huts  turned 
out  to  be  simply  reserves  of  this  filtering  earth,  which  has 
of  course  to  be  frequently  changed,  matted  over  as  a  pro- 
tection from  rain.  The  puzzle  to  us  why  the  sea- water 
after  passing  through  this  simple  filter  comes  out  a  strong 
olive  green  brine,  we  have  not  solved.  This  brine  is  then 
poured  into  the  wooden  trays,  where  the  little 
surplus  water  quickly  evaporates,  leaving  bold  hand- 
some crystals  of  snow-white  salt  behind.  Salt  is  a  Govern- 
ment monopoly  in  China  and  one  of  the  chief  sources  of 
the  Imperial  Revenue.  The  enhancement  of  the  cost  by 
the  taxes  imposed  on  it  and  the  consequent  inducement 
to  smuggle,  is  shewn  by  the  fact  that  we  purchased 
some  of  this  salt  for  thirty-five  cents  per  picul,  while  in 
Shanghai  a  very  dirty  and  inferior  salt  is  sold  at  over  a 
dollar  (lOO  cents). 

We  now  turned  our  backs  upon  this  curious  but  unat- 
tractive bay,  which  is  enclosed  between  two  lofty  head- 


YACHTING  IN  THE  CHUSAN  ARCHIPELAGO    187 

lands,  the  northern  of  which  we  proceeded  to  cross.  We 
calculated  that  by  crossing  this  range  we  should  proceed 
by  a  short  cut  to  the  bay  in  which  our  yacht  lay  moored 
awaiting  us.  This  range,  unlike  the  sandstone  hills 
enclosing  the  smiling  valleys  and  wooded  terraces  of  our 
morning  walk,  was  composed  of  steep  granite  mountains 
five  to  eight  hundred  feet  high,  whose  bare  peaks  stood  out 
against  the  sky  above  us,  jagged  and  weatherworn.  We 
climbed  up  a  steep  goat  path,  holding  on  with  our  hands 
to  the  low  brushwood,  in  places  clambering  over  big 
boulders,  whence  a  false  step  would  have  sent  us  rolling 
down  the  hill  into  the  mud  fiat  below  ;  arriving  at  the 
summit  of  the  nearest  pass,  no  trace  of  the  sea  we  had 
expected  to  find  at  our  feet  was  visible,  but  instead  we 
found  a  disappointing  succession  of  granite  mountain 
tops  and  grass  covered  slopes,  a  veritable  encampment 
of  hills  through  which  a  path  must  be  found.  Descending 
a  lonely  and  narrow  valley  and  winding  our  way  along  a 
stream  encumbered  with  gigantic  boulders  we  scrambled 
down  to  the  opposite  shore  and  found  ourselves  looking 
across  the  sea  at  Chusan,  and  nowhere  near  the  Ruby's 
anchorage.  We  mounted  again  and  after  scrambling  across 
three  more  steep  and  lofty  headlands,  sunset  found  us  at 
last  on  the  shores  of  a  mud-bay,  whence  the  boat  could 
be  hailed.  The  tide  was  rising,  and  a  heavy  surf  was 
rolling  over  the  mud-flat,  rendering  the  approach  of  the 
dingy  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  the  shore  impossible. 
We  stripped  and  waded  out  and  eventually  pulled  off  to 
the  Ruby  through  some  of  the  steepest,  though  by  no 
means  the  largest,  waves  we  have  ever  crossed  in  an  open 
boat.  The  contrast  between  the  bright  deep  sea  on  the 
Pacific  side  and  the  thick  chocolate  coloured  water  of  the 
landward  bays  is  astonishing. 

This  island  of  Choo-chia  lies  immediately  south  of 
Poo-too,  and  extends  from  29°  49'  to  29°  56'  north  lati- 
tude, being  about  seven  miles  long,  and  from  half  a  mile 
to  three  miles  in  breadth.  It  is  the  most  striking  and 
picturesque  of  any  of  the  islands  that  we  have  seen  on  this 


i88  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

coast,  and  we  believe  that  both  by  chmate  and  situation 
it  is  the  best  adapted  for  a  summer  resort  of  any  place 
in  our  neighbourhood.  It  is  well  supplied  with  all 
creature  wants,  unlike  Poo-too,  where  no  animals  are  kept 
for  food  and  where  no  life  can  be  taken  ;  it  is  extensive, 
thus  affording  numerous  and  varied  walks  with  the  best 
of  sea-bathing.  As  to  its  size,  we  found  to  our  cost  that 
it  is  much  larger  than  it  looks  on  the  chart.  Before  landing 
in  the  morning  we  found  the  summit  of  Chokey  Peak 
to  measure  only  two  miles  from  our  landing-place,  and 
when  we  set  out  felt  confident  of  being  able  to  ascend  it, 
though  warned  by  our  skipper  that  "  rolled  out  flat  " 
the  two  miles  would  probably  astonish  us,  as  our  readers 
have  seen  that  they  did.  Well,  Chokey,  if  you  "  take  and 
roU  it  out  flat,"  would  prove  a  big  place  and,  we  believe, 
more  than  cover  the,  by  comparison,  level  Isle  of  Wight. 
The  island  is  distant  from  Shanghai  just  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles,  and  from  Chinhai,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Ningpo 
River,  thirty-five. 

Dawn  the  next  morning  found  us  beating  up  \vith  the 
spring  flood-tide  against  a  strong  north-easter,  our  head 
once  more  turned  homewards  ;  past  Chin-kea-men  up 
towards  Ketan  Point,  a  fine  mountain  mass  which  loomed 
up  grandly  out  of  the  dark  water,  we  dashed  through  the 
short,  sharp  seas  occasionally  gunwale  under,  the  finest 
piece  of  saihng  we  had  yet  enjoyed.  Breakfast  was  hastily 
swallowed  under  difficulties,  and  we  returned  on  deck  to 
see  the  conspicuous  conical  peak  of  Chokey  mocking  our 
ill-success  as  we  gradually  sunk  him  astern.  We  decided 
that  Kin-tang  Island  should  be  our  next  objective,  and 
that  if  he  did  not  "  roll  out  "  too  big,  a  mountain  of  a 
thousand  and  five  hundred  feet  should  be  scaled  before 
dinner.  Passing  up  Tower  Hill  channel  through  a  very 
stiff  sea,  caused  by  the  terrific  tide-rip,  we  came  to  under 
Kin-tang  soon  after  nine,  having  made  the  thirty-five 
miles  distance  from  our  last  night's  anchorage  in  a  little 
over  four  hours.  We  had  some  difficulty  to  pick  up  an 
anchorage  here,  owing  to  the  exceeding  steepness  of  the 


YACHTING  IN  THE  CHUSAN  ARCHIPELAGO    189 

shores,  which  fail  almost  perpendicularly  to  a  depth  of 
twenty-five  to  thirty  fathoms,  an  unpleasant  amount  of 
water  for  a  smaU  vessel  in  a  tide  running  over  five  knots. 
We  ultimately  picked  up  a  bit  of  mud  under  Algerine 
Point  and  dropped  the  hook  in  eleven  fathoms  in  a  bay 
entirely  sheltered  from  the  monsoon,  though  otherwise 
quite  open.  Kin-tang  Peak  ascending  straight  from  our 
feet. 

Armed  with  some  biscuits  and  a  pocket  pistol  (our 
previous  tramps  having  knocked  our  tiffin-coolie  entirely 
hors  de  combat),  we  set  out  on  our  day's  walk,  as  pleasant, 
though  not  so  novel,  as  any  we  had  yet  had.  We  climbed 
up  through  the  usual  rough  undergrowth  of  the  lower 
hills,  past  the  middle  belt  of  the  pine  woods,  to  the 
grassy  summit  which,  though  covered  with  big  boulders, 
some  of  which  entailed  a  slippery  scramble,  we  found  less 
steep  than  it  looked  from  the  foot.  From  this  point, 
which  is  almost  at  the  extreme  west  end,  as  Chokey  is 
at  the  extreme  east  end,  of  the  archipelago,  the  view  is 
exceedingly  fine  and  interesting,  extending  over  towards 
Chusan  on  the  one  side  and  up  through  the  valley  of  the 
Ningpo  River  on  the  other. 

The  island  of  Kin-tang  is  situated  immediately  west  of 
Chusan,  from  which  it  is  separated  by  a  channel  five 
miles  wide  :  to  its  west  again  is  Chinhai  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Ningpo  River,  just  six  miles  distant.  The  island  itself 
is  seven  miles  long  and  four  miles  in  breadth  and  consists 
of  a  group  of  steep  hills  from  which  rise  two  peaks,  1,520 
and  1,432  feet  high  respectively,  clothed  with  vegetation 
to  the  summit.  The  wind  blew  cold  aloft,  and  heated  by 
our  climb  we  did  not  venture  to  stay  long  to  admire  the 
magnificent  view  of  land  and  water  stretching  on  every 
side.  In  short  too  great  hurry  was  characteristic  of  the 
whole  trip  :  to  have  done  thorough  justice  to  it  we 
required  a  month  where  we  could  only  afford  a  week. 

We  hastened  down  again  through  a  wild  ravine  filled 
with  big  scattered  rocks  fallen  from  the  heights  above. 
The  debris  from  the  two  peaks  seemed  to  meet  at  the  foot 


190  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

of  the  hollow  and  there  form  a  winding  river  of  rough 
boulders,  half  concealed  in  a  thick  growth  of  flowering 
shrubs,  through  and  over  which  we  toiled  painfully  down  to 
the  cultivated  valley,  which  widened  out  as  it  approached 
the  sea.  Here  we  found  neat  farms  nestled  in  trees, 
surrounded  by  fields  of  millet  now  in  flower,  hedged  in  by 
the  sub-tropical  growth  of  evergreen  trees  which  distin- 
guishes these  islands,  stone  paths  winding  between, 
reminding  us,  more  than  any  part  of  China  we  have  yet 
visited,  of  narrow  country  lanes  at  home.  Through  these, 
and  crossing  an  outlying  spur,  we  at  length  reached  the 
paddy  fields  which  occupy  the  narrow  plain  at  its  foot. 
Here  we  found  our  skipper,  who  had  shot  a  few  pigeons 
for  supper,  about  returning  on  board,  and,  divesting  our- 
selves of  our  chaussures,  we  waded  across  the  mud  flat, 
now  laid  bare  by  the  receding  tide,  and,  taking  the  dingy 
at  its  edge,  rejoined  the  yacht  moored  in  ten  fathoms  of 
water  and  not  a  hundred  yards  off.  Swim,  supper  and 
the  writing  up  of  our  log  ended  this  our  fifth  day  of  un- 
alloyed enjoyment. 

The  morning  of  the  first  of  October  broke  dull  and 
gloomy,  thick  clouds  overhead  and  a  slight  rain  spitting. 
We  had  decided  to  make  this  day,  our  last  in  the  archi- 
pelago, memorable  by  a  visit  to  the  island  of  Tsih-tze, 
renamed  "  Blackwall  "  by  the  expedition  of  1841,  and  then 
to  wind  up  our  cruise  by  a  beat  back  against  the  monsoon 
to  the  Saddle  Islands  and  thence  home.  Turning  our  head 
northwards  at  last,  we  set  sail  at  six  a.m.  with  a  light 
fair  wind  and  strong  adverse  tide.  Giving  Algerine 
Point  a  good  wide  berth  to  avoid  the  sunken  rock  marked 
in  the  chart  as  lying  off  its  extremity,  we  commenced  to 
open  out  the  Blackwall  Channel,  when,  as  we  stood  on 
deck  gazing  at  the  new  landscape  being  unrolled  before  our 
eyes,  a  gentle  shock  threw  us  forward  and  we  found 
ourselves  hard  and  fast,  the  bow  raised  three  feet  out  of 
water.  Here  was  a  fix  at  last  and  an  end  to  our  un- 
broken luck.  Soundings  shewed  five  fathoms  under  our 
stern  and  about  two  feet  at  our  bow  ;    meanwhile  big 


YACHTING  IN  THE  CHUSAN  ARCHIPELAGO   191 

junks  were  passing  between  us  and  the  point,  shewing 
that  there  was  plenty  of  water  nearer  in.  Fortunately 
the  tide  was  rising  and  we  had  glided  on  so  gently  that 
little  damage  was  to  be  feared.  We  got  out  a  kedge  as- 
tern, and  in  less  than  half-an-hour  were  once  more  afloat, 
while  the  carpenter  sounded  the  well  and  reported  no 
evidence  of  any  leak.  Still  our  skipper  took  a  gloomy  view 
of  the  accident,  and  to  our  great,  though  not  unexpected, 
regret  pronounced  that  we  must  put  in  to  the  nearest 
port,  Ningpo,  and  abandon  our  farther  cruise.  We 
rounded  to  and  with  a  strong  flood  tide  and  stiff  breeze 
at  nine  o'clock  reached  Chinhai  and  entered  the  river. 

Here  we  found  the  Chinese  at  work  like  bees  upon  the 
new  ironclad  forts  which  they  are  erecting  at  the  mouths 
of  all  the  rivers  open  to  foreigners,  big  derricks  overhang- 
ing the  water  for  landing  the  new  Krupp  guns  which  are 
to  form  their  armament.  We  beat  up  the  narrow  wind- 
ing junk-fiUed  river  and  shortly  before  noon  took  up  a 
berth  opposite  the  British  Consulate,  a  noble  architectural 
pile,  then  newly  erected,  the  cynosure  of  Ningpo,  a  building 
whose  size  and  construction  does  equal  honour  to  the 
head  and  heart  of  its  gallant  designer  (Paddy  Boyce, 
so  called),  as  its  sight  is  assuredly  one  calculated  to  gladden 
the  heart  of  every  liberal  and  enlightened  British  taxpayer. 
Here  we  were  hospitably  provided  with  that  food  and 
shelter  which  distressed  British  subjects  claim  as  their  due 
from  their  national  representatives,  and  came  away  with 
the  conviction  that  were  Ningpo  unhappily  deprived  of 
Her  Britannic  Majesty's  Vice-Consul  (R.  J.  Forrest)  it 
would  be  a  desert  indeed.  This  one  redeeming  point 
reconciled  us  to  our  enforced  detention  and  relieved  the 
ignominy  of  the  wind-up  of  our  voyage  by  steam. 

But  we  must  not  asperse  the  quietude  of  Ningpo,  for 
we  found  it  at  the  time  of  our  visit  unusually  agitated. 
Little  Peddlington  was  being  torn  by  questions  which 
seemed  to  threaten  its  very  existence  as  a  port.  We  found 
the  Club,  occupied  by  a  retiring  bar-boy  and  an  anxious 
secretary,  a  prey  to  dissensions  which  in  a  worse  ordered 


192  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

community  must  inevitably  have  caused  its  dissolution. 
We  found  the  Race  Course  threatening  to  become  impass- 
able with  the  wild  growth  of  untamed  jungle,  had  not  a 
patriotic  society  subscribed  a  large  sum  for  its  redemption. 
We  found  ingress  and  egress  from  the  palatial  residences 
of  its  merchant  princes  on  the  river  side  only  rendered 
possible  by  the  formation  of  a  noble  bund  at  a  cost  which 
would  have  frightened  any  but  the  most  large-hearted 
municipality  from  the  work.  A  new  and  handsome 
Gothic  church,  built  regardless  of  expense,  formed  a 
crowning  tribute  to  the  restless  energy  of  the  foreign 
denizens  of  this  much  maligned  port,  and  shews  them  to 
be  a  community  no  less  careful  of  their  spiritual  than  of 
their  material  wants.  Yet  the  founders  of  all  this  pros- 
perity, the  men  to  whom  these  great  works  are  due, 
meet,  it  seemed  to  us,  with  little  reward  beyond  the  appro- 
val of  their  own  consciences.  That  "  no  man  is  a  prophet 
in  his  own  country  "  holds  good  nowhere  more  than  in 
Ningpo,  where  the  greatest  benefactors  are  disparaged  by 
their  contemporaries  and  must  look  to  the  appreciation 
of  posterity  for  their  solace.  An  ignoble  spirit  of  criticism, 
a  cynical  mistrust  of  motives,  a  captious  enquiry  into 
figures  seems  to  have  led  many  of  the  otherwise  commend- 
able citizens  of  the  port  to  have  worried  the  depositaries 
of  their  confidence  into  something  like  open  rebellion. 
Twenty-one  dollars  squandered  on  the  bund  works  and  no 
accounts  of  the  outlay  to  date  submitted  !  Thirteen 
dollars  subscribed  for  the  clearing  of  the  race  course,  aU 
for  the  benefit  of  the  promoter,  Ningpo's  now  solitary 
horseman  !  The  Club,  a  model  for  other  ports  to  copy 
and  a  standing  comment  on  the  able  and  energetic  man- 
ner in  which  the  Honorary  Secretary  conducts  its  affairs, 
torn  asunder  by  the  meanness  of  two  of  its  members,  who 
offer  the  alternative  of  "  spUt  drinks  "  or  resignation. 

But  we  digress. — We  could  not  help  being  struck  by  the 
sudden  transition  from  the  soothing  calm  of  the  scenes  we 
had  just  left  to  the  active  turmoil  of  a  Treaty  Port,  and  we 
naturally  felt  sorrowful  at  the  curtailment  of  our  voyage. 


Buddhist  Nuns. 


TIte  feet  of  one  have  been  let  out  after  binding,  her  hind  is  raised  in  the  attitude 
of  prayer.     On  the  table  note  small  H'ooden  gon/i  and  reltiiious  boohs. 

To  face  p.  192. 


YACHTING  IN  THE  CHUSAN  ARCHIPELAGO   193 

city  life  not  being  in  our  programme.  Yet  we  were 
interested  and  instructed  and  felt  that  we  should  return  to 
Shanghai,  benefited  by  a  double  experience  of  life.  A 
dinner  with  the  redoubtable  Captain  Steele,  followed  by  a 
rough  night  in  the  s.s.  Hupeh,  and  early  dawn  of  the 
second  day  of  October  saw  us  once  more  at  our  work. 
The  Ruby  returned  three  days  later  apparently  uninjured. 
She  was,  however,  afterwards  found  to  be  not  worth 
repairing,  and  was  broken  up. 

As  we  have  said  much  of  the  weather  in  this  superficial 
story  of  our  cruise,  we  would  add,  for  the  benefit  of 
distant  readers,  that  the  thermometer  ranged  from  about 
70°  at  night  to  80°  in  the  shade  by  day.  To  nearer  readers 
we  would  recommend  an  imitation  of  our  example,  and 
express  the  hope  that,  while  doomed  to  remain  in  the 
Yangtse  Delta,  they  will  neglect  no  opportunity  offered 
them  of  yachting  in  the  China  Seas. 


RETROSPECT   OF   EVENTS    IN    CHINA 
DURING   THE    YEAR    1875 

This  retrospect  is  in  itself  so  interesting,  reflects  so  much  credit 
upon  the  early  dwellers  in  Shanghai,  and  may  be  so  useful  to 
the  compilers  of  books,  that  after  careful  consideration  it  has 
been  included  in  the  volume  :  but  it  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  it  was  written  in  1876  and  for  the  North  China  Branch  of 
the  Royal  Asiatic  Society. 

The  year  1875  was  marked  by  two  events  of  great  import- 
ance, in  so  far  as  this  part  of  the  world  is  concerned  : 
the  murder  of  Augustus  Raymond  Margary,  assistant  in 
H.B.M.'s  Consular  service,  and  the  death  of  the  Emperor, 
known  by  the  style  of  T'ung-chi.  Both  events  created 
great  excitement  at  the  time  and  promised  momentous 
changes  in  the  foreign  relations  of  the  empire  ;  but  in 
the  one  case  a  mission  of  enquiry  has  staved  off  the  impend- 
ing trouble,  and  in  the  other  case  the  succession  to  the 
throne  has  been  peacefully  transferred  to  the  infant,  under 
whose  reign  of  Kwang-hsii  we  are  now  living. 

The  news  of  the  death  of  Mr.  Margary  reached  us  on  the 
fifth  of  April  by  the  mail  steamer  from  India,  but  it  was 
known  to  the  Chinese  in  Peking  some  ten  days  earlier. 
The  sad  event  occurred  on  the  21st  February  at  a  place 
called  Manwyne,  ^  a  walled  village  in  the  Sanda  valley  of 
the  "  Shan  "  territory,  called  by  the  Chinese  the  land  of 
the  Pa-i  or  "  eight  barbarian  "   tribes.     The  attack  is 

*  Vide  "  Memorial  "  from  the  Tsungli  Yamen,  28th  August, 
1875.  "  The  British  Interpreter  Margary  and  his  party  were 
proceeding  from  Burma  into  Yunnan,  when,  at  a  town  fifty  /» 
south-west  from  the  seat  of  Government  at  the  Shan  principality  of 
Sanda,  subject  to  the  prefecture  of  Yung-chang,  they  were  attacked 
by  troops  in  the  service  of  tJhe  Government  and  (Mr.  Margary 
was)  murdered,"  etc. 

194 


RETROSPECT   OF    EVENTS    IN    CHINA     195 

said  to  have  taken  place  in  the  "  Khyong  "  a  sort  of 
temple  and  "guest-house"  which  exists  in  all  these 
towns.  The  Shans  are  feudatory  to  the  Chinese. 
This  city  is  often  confounded  with  Momein  in  the 
Chinese  jurisdiction  of  Teng-yueh-chow  in  Yunnan, 
the  proper  name  for  which  is  Teng-yueh-ting,  a 
town  registered  in  the  "  Tsin-shen "  or  Chinese  Civil 
List  as  a  residence  of  a  "  Ting "  magistrate  under 
the  prefecture  of  Yung-ch'ang-fu.  Mr.  Margary  had, 
after  a  long  and  adventurous  journey,  already  passed 
through  both  cities  on  his  way  westward  ;  and  had 
joined  Colonel  Browne,  who  had  been  appointed  leader 
of  the  proposed  expedition  through  the  western  provinces 
of  China  from  Bhamo.  It  was  on  his  return  journey,  while 
prospecting  in  advance  of  the  party,  that  he  was  fallen 
upon  and  killed  ;  report  says  under  the  direction  of  the 
high  Chinese  officials  of  Yunnan,  without  whose  connivance 
the  Shans,  a  semi-civilised  race,  would  not  have  ventured 
such  an  act  :  whether  truly  or  not,  the  investigations 
of  the  commission  now  on  its  way  thither  will  ere  long 
inform  us.  The  horror  and  disgust  which  this  cold- 
blooded crime  inspired  in  the  breasts  of  poor  Margary's 
fellow-countrymen,  and  indeed  of  all  foreigners  throughout 
China,  led  people  to  look  for  war  as  the  only  means  of 
duly  avenging  the  murder  on  the  native  officials  who 
were  supposed  to  be  its  instigators,  and  on  the  literati  class 
generally,  who  were  believed  to  approve  it.  As  time  wore 
on,  however,  these  feelings  calmed  down,  and  the  complic- 
ity of  the  mandarins  was  no  longer  felt  to  be  an  absolute 
certainty.  Meanwhile  the  joint  commission  was  deter- 
mined upon  by  our  Minister  at  Peking  ;  and  it  was  hoped 
and  believed  that  the  real  truth  would  be  ferreted  out, 
and  the  guilty  brought  to  punishment.  This  commission 
was  composed,  on  the  British  side,  of  the  Honourable 
T.  G.  Grosvenor,  second  secretary  of  H.M.  Legation  at 
Peking,  and  Mr.  Baber,  consular  interpreter ;  together 
with  Mr.  Davenport,  then  Vice-Consul  at  Shanghai, 
attached  as  a  sort  of  legal  assessor  and  accompanied  by 


196  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Sung  Pao-hvva  :  on  the  Chinese  side,  of  Li  Han-chang, 
governor-general  of  the  two  Hu.  They  were  pre- 
ceded by  Liu  ^  and  assisted  by  Chen,  late  judge  of  the 
Shanghai  Mixed  Court ;  altogether  a  body  so  constituted 
as  to  ensure  a  fair  hearing  and  a  thorough  investigation. 
This  party  started  on  the  5th  of  October  from  Hankow, 
reached  Sha-shih  on  the  25th  November,  Ichangon  the  ist 
December,  and  Kwei-chow-fu  on  the  13th  of  that  month. 
Li  Han-chang  and  his  colleagues  arrived  in  Yunnan-fu 
on  the  13th  November  and  immediately  sent  a  report 
to  the  Peking  Government,  who  published  an  edict 
on  the  9th  day  of  December,  degrading  the  officials 
concerned  in  the  outrage,  preparatory  to  their  formal 
trial. 

Six  months  thus  elapsed  from  the  time  the  news  of  the 
murder  was  received  to  the  final  despatch  of  the  com- 
mission to  adjudicate  upon  it.  The  interval  was  filled 
with  negotiations  between  the  British  Government, 
represented  by  Mr.  Wade,  on  the  one  part,  and  the 
Peking  authorities,  who  deputed  Li  Hung-chang,  Viceroy 
of  Chih-li,  as  their  plenipotentiary,  on  the  other  part.  The 
agreement  was  not  arrived  at  without  enormous  difficulty  ; 
and  the  greatest  credit  is  due  to  Mr.  Wade  for  his  patience 
and  pertinacity  in  bringing  the  negotiations  to  a  successful 
issue  without  having  recourse  to  that  force  which  would 
have  been  the  resource  of  a  less  able  diplomatist.  People 
at  the  time,  especially  his  fellow-countrymen  here  in 
China,  annoyed  at  the  long  delay  in  exacting  retribution, 
hardly  gave  Mr.  Wade  that  full  credit  for  his  action  in  the 
matter  which  time  is  beginning  to  award  him,  and  which 
his  Government  has  deservedly  acknowledged  with  a 
K.C.B.  Mr.  Wade,  now  Sir  Thomas,  had  an  extremely 
difficult  task  to  fulfil ;  and  a  slight  sketch  of  the  negotia- 
tions, as  far  as  known,  will  hardly  be  out  of  place  ;    as 

*  Liu  Yo-chao,  Governor-General  of  Yunnan  and  Kweichow, 
had  gone  to  his  native  place  in  Hunan.  He  was  now  ordered  to 
return  and  "  cooperate  with  the  Governor  (Ts'en  Yii-ying)  in 
selecting  officials  of  intelligence  and  ability  to  deal  with  the  matter 
as  justice  requires." 


RETROSPECT   OF    EVENTS    IN    CHINA     197 

showing  the  system  pursued,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
great  difficulty  of  obtaining  redress  from  the  Chinese 
Government  in  deahng  with  foreign  affairs. 

News  of  the  outrage  reached  Peking  at  the  end  of 
March  and  H.B.M.'s  minister  at  once  demanded  the 
despatch  of  a  high  Chinese  commission  to  investigate 
the  crime  on  the  spot,  and  bring  the  guilty  parties,  what- 
ever their  position,  to  punishment :  at  the  same  time  in- 
sisting that  no  one  should  be  sentenced  until  a  commission 
of  foreigners,  appointed  by  himself,  should  have  had 
the  opportunity  of  investigating  the  evidence  and  assuring 
themselves  of  the  real  guilt  of  the  accused.  The  Chinese 
were  long  in  yielding  a  general  compliance  to  this  demand  ; 
until  a  threat  of  hauling  down  his  flag  induced  them  to 
give  way  and  to  appoint  Li  Han-chang,  Viceroy  of  the 
two  Hu  and  brother  of  Li  Hung-chang,  as  special  com- 
missioner. Meanwhile  a  memorial  was  received  at 
Peking  from  the  governor  of  Yunnan,  in  which  the  attack 
upon  Margary  was  attributed  to  a  popular  outbreak, 
and  the  only  blame  due  to  the  officials  to  an  inabihty 
to  foresee  the  disturbance,  or  quell  it  in  time. 

On  the  19th  June  the  first  notification  on  the  subject 
appeared  in  the  Peking  Gazette  ;  viz.,  the  appointment  of 
Li  Han-chang  to  proceed  to  Yunnan  "  to  enquire  into 
and  settle  a  certain  affair  which  had  occurred  in  that  pro- 
vince," no  notice  of  foreigners  or  foreign  troubles  having 
been  made.  To  this  apparent  disposition  of  the  Chinese 
authorities  to  gloss  over  the  matter  and  let  it  seem  to  their 
own  people  one  of  comparative  insignificance,  must  be 
attributed  the  hitch  which  about  this  time  occurred,  and 
which  led  to  a  renewal  of  negotiations  and  the  postpone- 
ment of  the  departure  of  the  commission.  At  the  same 
time,  also,  the  strongest  orders  appear  to  have  been  received 
from  the  home  Government  by  Sir  Thomas  Wade,  ordering 
a  firm  stand  to  be  made  for  all  the  points  demanded  ; 
viz.,  a  full  investigation,  degradation,  and  punishment  of 
the  guilty,  however  high-placed ;  acknowledgment  of  the 
status  of  British  subjects,  and  their  right  to  travel  in  the 


198  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

country  ;  the  publication  of  these  facts  in  the  Government 
official  Gazette ;  and  the  establishment  of  direct  intercourse 
with  the  Heads  of  Departments  in  Peking,  in  lieu  of  being 
limited  to  the  Tsung-li  yam^n  or  Department  of  Foreign 
Affairs  as  heretofore. 

Sir  Thomas  Wade  spent  the  early  Summer  at 
Shanghai,  presumably  in  order  to  be  in  telegraphic 
communication  with  his  Government,  while  these  nego- 
tiations were  pending ;  and,  it  is  said,  to  arrange  with 
the  Admiral  of  the  British  fleet  in  these  waters,  in  the 
event  of  the  situation  demanding  ulterior  measures. 
Colonel  Browne,  who  was  in  command  of  the  escort  which 
was  attacked  by  the  Chinese  militia  on  the  frontier 
of  Yunnan,  was  also  present.  In  August  Sir  Thomas, 
armed  with  full  powers,  returned  to  the  north,  and  in 
Tientsin  met  Li  Hung-chang,  who  had  been  appointed  as 
plenipotentiary  on  the  Chinese  side.  Lengthened  negotia- 
tion ensued,  and  war,  which  at  one  time  was  confidently 
expected,  was  prevented,  it  is  reported,  by  Li's  firmness  in 
pressing  on  his  own  Government  the  true  state  of  affairs. 
For  there  is  httle  doubt  that  in  the  Summer  the  Empress 
and  her  entourage  had  been  eager  to  fight,  and  if 
possible  oust  the  barbarian  altogether  ;  for  which  purpose 
they  believed  the  Chinese  army  to  be,  both  in  equip- 
ment and  numbers,  fitted.  Prince  Ch'un,  the  father  of 
the  boy  emperor,  was  then  described  as  a  rash  man  and 
fanatical  barbarian-hater ;  and  to  his  influence  was 
attributed  the  qualification  of  Li's  powers  to  the  extent 
of  not  allowing  him  to  concede  the  arraignment  of  Liu 
Yoh-chao,  the  governor-general  of  Yunnan.  This  restric- 
tion was  only  made  known  apparently  at  the  last  moment, 
and  our  Minister  then  retired  from  Tientsin  to  Chefoo  in  a 
gunboat,  threatening  war.  As  the  Chinese  knew  that 
Sir  Thomas  Wade  was  not  a  man  to  utter  empty  threats, 
Li  hereupon  determined  to  apply  once  more  to  Peking  ; 
knowing  full  well  that  the  Chinese  army  was  in  no  position 
to  face  a  foreign  foe.  He  succeeded  in  impressing  his 
views  upon  the  Empresses,  and  upon  Sir  Thomas  Wade's 


RETROSPECT   OF   EVENTS    IN    CHINA     199 

returning  to  Tientsin  with  Admiral  Ryder,  he  met  a  mes- 
senger from  Li  conceding  the  point.  Thus,  as  ever,  the 
Chinese,  finding  the  foreigner  to  be  in  earnest,  gave  way  ; 
and  thus  a  second  time  has  Sir  Thomas  by  his  tact  and 
firmness  saved  this  unwieldy  empire  from  plunging  into 
war  and  probably  self-destruction.  Such  we  believe  to 
have  been  the  main  steps  in  the  negotiations,  the  details 
of  which  we  must  await  the  publication  of  a  blue-book 
to  confirm. 

On  the  28th  September  an  edict  appeared  in  the  Peking 
Gazette  conceding  intercourse  with  the  great  Depart- 
ments of  State  ;  and  on  the  loth  October  appeared  another, 
ordering  action  to  be  taken  by  Li  Han-chang  in  the  matter 
of  the  murder  of  Margary  ;  declaring  the  right  of  foreigners 
to  travel  in  the  interior,  and  requiring  the  officials  to  take 
cognisance  of  the  provisions  of  the  treaty  in  this  regard. 
Further,  in  the  Gazette  of  the  9th  December,  the  failure 
of  the  prefect  of  Yunnan-fu  to  control  his  lawless  subjects, 
and  the  neglect  of  the  brigadier  commanding  the  district 
to  take  cognisance  of  the  murder  of  Margary  and  the  attack 
on  Colonel  Browne's  escort  and  to  arrest  those  concerned 
in  it,  was  admitted,  and  both  officials  (Wu  K'i-liang  and 
Tsiang  Tsung-han)  are  temporarily  degraded  from  their 
posts,  with  a  view  to  their  examination.  Here  the  matter 
now  stands.  It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the  Chinese 
hope  seriously  to  palm  off  upon  the  British  Minister  a 
tale,  which  requires  him  to  believe  the  officials  were  ignor- 
ant and  quiescent,  and  that  such  events  as  a  spontaneous 
assembly  of  the  militia  could  have  taken  place.  It  may 
be  that  the  British  Government,  anxious  not  to  press 
the  reigning  dynasty  too  hard,  may  be  satisfied  with  the 
degradation  of  the  officials  and  the  execution  of  the 
immediate  murderers  of  Margary,  if  these  can  be  dis 
covered,  and  wink  at  the  subterfuges  of  the  Peking 
Government  to  conceal  their  dishonour.  Such  seems  to 
be  the  present  home  policy  ;  but  we  believe  that  as  in 
Turkey,  the  support  given  to  an  effete,  corrupt  and  obso- 
lete system  is  a  mistake,  and  that  it  would  be  better  to  let 


200  GLEANINGS   FROM    CHINA 

both  Governments  collapse  on  the  chance  of  something 
better  arising  to  take  their  places  ;  as,  without  external 
props,  they  would  inevitably  do  from  their  own  rottenness. 

The  accession  of  the  Emperor,  whose  style  or  Kwo-hao 
is  Kwang-hsii,  was  announced  in  the  Peking  Gazette  of 
i6th  January  ;  and  we  learn  from  the  North-China  Herald, 
to  which  able  periodical  and  notably  to  the  translations 
of  the  Peking  Gazettes  regularly  published  therein,  we  are 
indebted  for  many  of  the  facts  of  this  Retrospect — that 
this  name  was  selected  from  a  sentence  occurring  in  a  State 
paper  of  the  Sung  dynasty,  entitled  Memorial  requesting 
the  bestowal  of  a  title  of  honour.  The  sentence  is  as  follows  : 
— Kwang  fuh-p'ei  hsii,  i.e.,  "  gloriously  renew  the  dynastic 
continuation,"  so  that  Kwang-hsii  may  be  freely  rendered 
as  "  Glorious  succession."  The  boy's  own  name  is 
Tsai  t'ien,  and  he  is  a  cousin  of  the  late  emperor,  styled 
T'ung-chih,  or  "  Law  and  order,"  who  had  commenced 
his  reign  in  August,  1861.  He  is  the  ninth  of  the  line  of 
the  T'sing  or  Manchu  dynasty,  inaugurated  in  the 
year  1644  by  the  Tartar  conqueror,  Shun-che, 

The  late  emperor,  T'ung-chih,  was  bom  on  the  27th 
April,  1856,  his  death  thus  occurring  in  his  nineteenth 
year.  The  death  of  his  father  Hien-feng  ("  Plenty  "), 
which  took  place  at  Jehol  on  the  17th  August,  1861,  after 
his  flight  from  Peking  in  the  autumn  of  the  previous  year, 
when  the  allied  forces  menaced  the  capital,  left  the  guard- 
ianship of  the  young  heir  apparent  a  prize  to  be  disputed 
by  the  powers  at  court.  The  dispute  which  was  naturally 
to  be  expected  in  an  Oriental  palace  took  place.  The 
princes  Su-chun,  Ts'ai-yuen  and  Twan-hwa,  members  of 
the  Blood  Royal,  strongly  opposed  to  the  peace  policy 
of  which  Prince  Kung  was  the  foremost  representative, 
having  proclaimed  the  emperor,  endeavoured  to  seize  the 
reins  of  government  and  form  a  regency  in  which  their 
own  party  should  have  unlimited  sway.  The  Empress 
Dowager  ("  Mother  of  the  State  ")  and  the  mother  of  the 
sovereign  were  admitted  to  the  Council  of  the  Regency, 
nominally  as  guardians  of  the  boy  emperor.     Prince  Kung 


RETROSPECT   OF    EVENTS    IN    CHINA    201 

was  excluded,  and  the  empresses,  being  dissatisfied  with 
Su-chun's  conduct,  arranged  a  coup  d'etat  with  the  former 
prince.  The  three  conspiring  princes  were  arrested,  tried, 
and  condemned  to  be  cut  to  pieces  :  this  sentence  was 
commuted  to  the  decapitation  of  Su-chun  and  the  self- 
strangulation  of  the  other  two.  The  young  emperor 
ascended  the  throne,  nominally  at  the  commencement  of 
the  year  1862,  which  is  called  the  first  of  T'ung-chih  (the 
year  in  which  one  emperor  dies  continues  to  be  called  by 
his  style),  the  administration  of  the  government  devolving 
upon  the  Empresses  Dowager  as  Regents,  with  his  uncle. 
Prince  Kung,  as  chief  adviser.  On  the  i6th  October, 
1872,  he  was  married  ;  and  on  the  23rd  February  following 
he  assumed  the  reins  of  government. 

We  know  little  of  the  character  or  capacity  of  the 
deceased  emperor ;  but  there  are  grounds  for  believing 
that  he  inherited  some  of  the  energy  which  distinguished 
the  earlier  monarchs  of  the  dynasty.  The  opportunity 
of  the  crisis  produced  by  his  death  was  taken  to 
make  Li  Hung-chang,  a  Chinese  (native  of  Ngan-hui), 
senior  of  the  Ta-hio-sze  or  Grand  Secretaries  of 
State,  a  precedence  hitherto  assigned  to  a  Manchu. 
Speculations  have  been  rife  as  to  the  likelihood 
of  this  powerful  Viceroy  overturning  the  Manchus  and 
establishing  a  native  dynasty  in  his  own  person  ;  but  all 
we  can  learn  goes  to  show  that  no  such  disloyalty  is  felt 
either  by  Li  or  any  other  of  the  high  Chinese  officials  ; 
and  that  the  Manchu  dynasty  are  no  more  regarded  as 
intruders  than  is  the  German  family  that  now  sits  on  the 
throne  of  England.  In  both  instances,  as  long  as  the 
Government  is  carried  on  in  accordance  with  the  ancient 
principles  of  constitutionalism  on  the  one  side,  and  of  a 
democratic  autocracy  on  the  other,  no  opposition  is  likely 
or  even  conceivable.  No  :  the  danger  to  the  Manchu 
dynasty  is  from  without. 

On  the  morning  following  the  death  of  T'ung-chih, 
which  took  place  on  the  12th  January,  it  was  reported  in 
Peking  that  a  grandchild  of  his  eldest  uncle,  the  Prince  of 


202  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Tun,  had,  in  the  absence  of  a  direct  heir,  been  selected 
for  the  succession  ;  but  later  in  the  day  it  became  known 
that  the  two  Empresses  {i.e.  the  Empress  Dowager  and  the 
Empress  Mother  of  T'ung-chih)  had  selected  the  only  son  of 
the  seventh  prince,  the  Prince  of  Ch'un.  This  child,  who 
was  bom  in  1871  and  is  thus  five  years  old,  was  designated 
as  a  successor  to  the  throne  in  a  decree  of  the  Empresses, 
sanctioned,  it  was  said,  by  a  valedictory  manifesto  of  the 
departed  sovereign.  The  Empress  Mother  and  the  Princess 
of  Ch'un  are  sisters,  and  are  said  to  be  daughters  of  a 
Manchu  functionary,  formerly  in  office  as  Tao-tai  of  the 
Kwei-sui  district  in  Shansi,  named  Ch6ng-lin.  The  result 
shews  that  the  empresses  have  known  how  to  maintain 
and  exalt  the  position  gained  by  their  coup  d'etat  in 
1861,  when  they  seized  the  reins  of  power  after  the  death 
of  Hien-feng  :  and  we  cannot  but  admire  the  vigour 
and  determination  with  which  they  appear  to  dominate 
the  rival  parties  and  bend  princes  and  ministers  to  their 
will.  We  believe  that,  in  truth,  the  Empresses  Regent 
are  now  carrying  on  personal  government  in  a  way  hardly 
credited  in  Europe.  Placing  themselves  behind  a  curtain 
they  receive  the  numerous  officials  daily  going  up  from  all 
parts  of  the  vast  empire  to  Peking  for  audience,  and  we  are 
told  that  the  Empress  Mother  particularly  shews  no  little 
discernment  in  judging  of  the  character  of  the  officials 
brought  before  her,  and  in  selecting  them  for  appropriate 
posts. 

The  past  year  has  witnessed  the  evacuation  of  Formosa 
by  the  Japanese  troops,  who  have  been  replaced  by  large 
bodies  of  Chinese  sent  across  to  subdue  the  natives.  Very 
little  has  been  done  beyond  organising  the  coast  districts 
already  in  Chinese  possession  and  extending  new  roads. 
Of  the  actual  operations  of  the  troops  little  is  known  with 
certainty,  but  the  reports  received  state  that  in  their 
encounters  with  the  aborigines  they  were  regularly  repulsed 
as  soon  as  they  left  the  settled  districts,  notwithstanding 
that  the  men  were  well  armed  with  foreign  rifles  and 
equipped  for  the  field  as  no  other  Chinese  force  has  yet 


RETROSPECT   OF    EVENTS    IN    CHINA     203 

been.  At  the  recommendation  of  Shen  Pao-chen,  the 
Imperial  commissioner,  some  wise  edicts  encouraging  the 
settlement  of  the  country  were  issued,  and  the  Futai  of 
Fukien  was  ordered  to  reside  in  the  island.  The  show  of 
pacification  over,  the  majority  of  the  Chinese  troops  were 
withdrawn  and  passed  through  Shanghai  during  the  sum- 
mer on  the  way  back  to  the  districts  north  of  the  Yangtse 
from  which  they  had  been  drawn,  and  disbanded.  To 
cover  the  expenses  of  this  expedition  and  of  that  in  the 
north-west  against  Kashgar,  two  small  loans,  secured  on 
the  Customs  revenues,  were  privately  negotiated,  one  of 
two  million  taels  Nvith  the  Oriental  Bank,  and  one  of  one 
million  taels  with  the  British  firm  of  Jardine,  Matheson 
&  Co,  The  rate  of  interest  upon  these  loans  is  ten  per  cent, 
per  annum,  being  an  increase  upon  the  rate  at  which  the 
first  loan  was  borrowed  in  the  previous  year  through 
the  medium  of  the  Hongkong  and  Shanghai  Banking 
Corporation — £627,615  at  eight  per  cent. 

Turkestan  has  been  another  source  of  anxiety  and 
expenditure  to  China  during  the  past  twelve  months. 
Not  content  with  quelling  the  rebellion  in  Shensi  and 
Kansuh,  the  Peking  Government,  it  is  said,  much  against 
the  advice  of  the  high  officials  outside  the  Cabinet,  desired 
to  reduce  the  Mohammedan  tribes  beyond  the  wall ;  and 
to  reconquer  the  revolted  provinces  of  Turkestan  which 
have  been  welded  into  a  kingdom  by  Yacoob  khan.  These 
further  efforts  have  been,  however,  unsuccessful :  indeed 
it  is  reported  that  Tso  Ts'ung-t'ang's  army  of  100,000  men 
has  been  utterly  destroyed,  all  but  the  rearguard,  which 
had  not  advanced  far  beyond  the  wall,  and  with  which 
was  the  general  himself.  It  has  been  obvious  from  the 
commencement  that  China  was  in  no  condition  to  attempt 
the  reduction  of  Kashgar  ;  and  the  enterprise  has  only 
added  to  the  many  other  heavy  embarrassments  of  the 
country. 

The  interests  of  the  foreigners  settled  in  the  country 
have  continued  to  retrograde,  and  although  the  Chinese 
may  have  no  premeditated  pohcy  of  starving  us  out,  they 


204  GLEANINGS   FROM    CHINA 

appear  to  be  slowly  but  surely  doing  so.     The  establish- 
ment of  a  subsidiary  line  of  coast  steamers  in  the  shape  of 
the  China  Merchants'  Steam  Navigation  Company  has 
proved  a  formidable  blow  to  foreign  shipping.     In  this 
as  in  other  instances  the  Chinese  Government  has  shewn 
itself  by  no  means  unwilling  to  avail  itself  of  foreign  arts, 
but  with  the  hope  of  using  them  to  keep  foreigners  at  a 
distance.     So  of  the  Woosung  railway,  built  to  connect 
Shanghai  with  its  port  of  Woosung,  ten  miles  distant. 
The  Chinese   Government  possibly  does  not   object   to 
railways  in  themselves,  but  solely  as  a  weapon  in  foreign 
hands.     It  is  willing  to  buy  and  work  the  road  itself,  but 
not  to  permit  foreigners  to  introduce  the  thin  end  of  the 
wedge,  if  it  can  prevent  it.  ^     Foreign  machinery  has  been 
introduced  to  work  the  Keelung  (Formosa)  coal-mines, 
but  no  foreign  company  is  allowed  to  own  or  work  them. 
In  the  lower  walks  of  trade  the  superior  economy  of  the 
natives  is  fast  ousting  foreigners  from  ground  once  their 
own,   such   as  storekeeping,   printing,   carpentering  and 
blacksmith   work  ;     whereby   the   number   of   foreigners 
able  to  make  a  living  in  China  is  daily  diminishing.     This 
is  but  natural  and  hardly  regrettable  ;   but  that  the  field 
to  foreign  enterprise  on  a  large  scale  should  be  entirely 
closed  against  us  is  a  sad  disappointment  to  those  who 
have  lived  here  in  the  expectation  of  sooner  or  later  seeing 
the    country    "  opened    up."     That    the    Chinese    have 
a  right  so  to  hold  us  at  a  distance  is,  if  we  treat  them  as 
equals,  undeniable,  but  our  existence  here  at  all  is  a  viola- 
tion of  this  right,  and  most  foreign  residents  in  China 
were  of  the  belief  that,  in  the  interests  of  humanity  in 
general,  and  of  the  Chinese  in  particular,  this  supposed 
right  would  continue  to  be  violated.     For  what  have  we 
here  but  a  country,  richly  endowed  by  nature,  filled  with 
a  frugal  and  industrious  population,  yet  decaying  through 
absence  of  organisation  and  want  of  leadership.     Every 

*  This  railway  was  afterwards  destroyed  by  the  Chinese,  and 
it  is  only  in  the  twentieth  century  that  it  has  been  rebuilt. — • 

A.  E.  N.  L. 


RETROSPECT   OF    EVENTS    IN    CHINA     205 

year  a  famine  is  recorded  in  some  portion  or  other  of  the 
interior  of  the  empire,  and  the  rich  crops  of  the  more 
fruitful  provinces  are  of  small  avail  in  allaying  the  curse. 
Want  of  means  of  communication  and  accumulated 
taxation  check  the  overflow  of  one  province  into  the  void 
of  another,  and  the  starving  people,  no  other  resource  left 
them,  rise  in  rebellion.  The  dry  provinces  in  the  north- 
west have  to  depend  on  their  own  precarious  crops 
for  food,  and  are  prevented  as  much  by  the  want 
of  roads  from  importing  supplies  from  a  distance, 
as  by  the  want  of  funds  from  paying  for  them.  The 
mineral  resources  at  their  feet  are  untouched,  and 
regions  which,  if  report  speaks  true,  are  as  rich  in 
the  materials  of  wealth  as  any  portion  of  the  known 
globe,  vegetate  in  miserable  poverty.  If  these  things 
were  as  well  known  to  our  rulers  at  home  as  they  are  to  us 
here,  less  pusillanimity  would  be  shown  in  dealing  with 
the  position  of  foreigners  in  China  ;  for  our  prestige  is 
sufficient  to  enable  us  to  gain  all  that  we  can  in  reason 
ask,  and,  should  it  fail  for  the  moment,  the  first  renewal 
of  a  display  of  force  would  revive  it.  Properly  adminis- 
tered the  resources  of  the  country  are  ample ;  but,  as 
the  Government  is  now  managed,  each  province,  in  the 
memorials  of  its  governors  to  headquarters,  vies  with 
the  others  in  proclaiming  its  insolvency. 

It  is  beyond  the  province  of  this  retrospect  to  enumerate 
the  mercantile  disabilities  under  which  we  labour  ;  in- 
stanced by  the  taxation  of  our  goods,  over  and  above  the 
five  per  cent.  Customs  tax  levied  on  landing,  even  in  this 
our  own  settlement ;  by  the  seizure,  without  previous 
warning,  of  the  Carishrooke  steamer  off  Hainan  ;  by 
the  nullification  of  Treaty  Transit-passes  at  the  outports, 
and  by  the  attempt  to  starve  out  our  colony  of  Hongkong 
by  a  Customs'  cordon  surrounding  it.  Here  in  Shanghai 
we  have  one  of  the  most  important  seaports  in  the  world 
being  gradually  closed  up  by  what  the  highest  official  in 
the  province  was  not  ashamed  to  call  the  heaven-sent 
(see  Fut'ai's  despatch  to  Consul  Medhurst)  barrier  of  the 


2o6  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Woosung  bar.  It  is  an  astonishing  sight  to  see  the  rapid 
encroachments  of  the  Yangtse  mud,  which  in  fifteen  years 
has  narrowed  our  river  by  nearly  one-third  ;  and  in  no 
other  country  but  China  would  a  river  serving  such  a 
trade  as  this  be  left  to  its  natural  devices.  Mainly  at  the 
expense  of  the  foreign  community,  some  Dutch  engineers 
were  summoned  from  Japan  to  examine  the  bar ;  but  their 
report  has  not  yet  been  published,  nor  when  published 
is  there  any  reason  to  hope  that  action  will  be  taken  upon 
it.  The  condition  of  the  settlement  is  an  abnormal  one  ; 
and  the  governing  powers  of  the  municipality  established 
by  the  foreign  residents  are  being  daily  encroached  upon. 
To  ensure  a  continuance  of  the  prosperity  brought  to  the 
place  by  foreigners  an  extension  of  these  powers  is  needed  ; 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  foreign  residents  needs  to  be 
extended,  as  in  the  time  of  the  thirty-mile  radius,  so  that 
fresh  roads  can  be  made,  the  conservancy  of  the  river 
taken  in  hand,  waterworks  and  other  appliances  of  civilisa- 
tion established  ;  in  short,  power  taken  from  those  who 
won't  govern  and  given  to  those  who  will. 

At  the  time  when  war  with  Japan  was  imminent  the 
government  of  Fu-kien,  under  whose  administration  the 
island  of  Formosa  is  placed,  saw  the  necessity  of  availing 
themselves  of  the  telegraphic  facilities  which  the  Great 
Northern  Telegraphic  Company  has  provided  on  this 
coast.  But  Foochow,  although  the  largest  tea-port  in 
China,  exporting  annually  nearly  100,000,000  lbs.  of 
tea,  has  no  direct  communication,  the  wire  being  landed 
at  the  neighbouring  and  more  accessible  port  of  Amoy. 
To  set  up  a  wire  overland  between  the  two  ports,  and  thus 
put  Foochow  in  direct  communication  with  the  rest  of 
the  world,  was  a  very  simple  matter,  but  no  permission 
could  be  gained  from  the  Chinese,  and  the  affair  was  given 
up  until  in  1874  the  difficulty  with  Japan  induced  the 
Viceroy  to  consent  to  the  undertaking.  The  Great 
Northern  Telegraph  Company  immediately  set  to  work  ; 
but  before  the  line  was  completed,  by  the  good  offices  of 
Mr.  Wade  a   peace  was  settled  and   the  wire  no  longer 


RETROSPECT   OF   EVENTS    IN    CHINA     207 

needed.  The  Telegraph  Company  were  forced  to  receive 
payment  for  the  work  done,  and  the  posts  were  pulled 
down.  Thus,  in  nothing  but  the  direct  appliances  of 
war  has  the  Chinese  Government  shewn  itself  really 
progressive.  In  obtaining  these  they  have  spared  no  cost, 
even  in  the  face  of  the  financial  embarrassment  which  is 
disclosed  in  memorials  from  every  part  of  the  empire. 
Frigates  and  gun-boats  of  the  most  approved  designs  have 
been  constructed  at  the  arsenals  of  Foochow  and  Shanghai, 
or  imported  from  abroad.  Enormous  orders  have  been 
sent  to  the  Krupp  factory,  and  scarcely  a  steamer  has 
arrived  from  Europe  during  the  year  without  bringing 
out  a  heavy  consignment  of  war  material  of  some  sort 
or  another  for  the  Government.  Powder-mills  and  cart- 
ridge manufactories  on  a  large  scale  have  been  added  to  the 
Shanghai  arsenal,  and  forts  of  the  most  approved  modem 
type  have  been  erected  at  the  mouths  of  the  principal 
rivers,  notably  at  Woosung  and  Taku,  and  at  the  head  of 
the  more  commanding  reaches  of  the  Yangtse  and  the 
Min.  This  ceaseless  activity  in  the  War  Department 
has  been  in  marked  contrast  with  the  apathy  and  obstruc- 
tiveness  shewn  in  all  other  quarters,  and  bodes  little  good 
for  the  pacific  progress  of  foreign  interests,  which  all  who 
have  cast  in  their  lot  with  this  country  are  so  anxiously 
watching  for. 

As  an  instance  of  the  energy  of  our  residents  in  the  cause 
of  science  we  may  mention,  apart  from  the  work  accom- 
plished by  the  members  of  this  Society,  the  establishment 
of  an  Astronomical  Observatory  on  a  modest  scale  by 
Dr.  L.  S.  Little,  whose  labours  we  confidently  expect 
will  in  time  produce  good  fruit.  Opportunity  has  been 
taken  of  the  determination  of  the  longitude  of  Nagasaki  by 
the  American  "  Transit  of  Venus  "  expedition  in  1874 
accurately  to  fix  the  longitude  of  Shanghai.  A  first  need 
of  the  American  party,  upon  their  arrival  in  Nagasaki, 
was  to  determine  the  longitude  of  their  observatory. 
The  cable  to  Vladivostock  enabled  them  to  do  this  by 
putting    them    in    communication    with    the    Siberian 


2o8  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

astronomers  ;  and  last  year  the  cable  between  this  and 
Nagasaki  was  placed  at  the  disposal  of  Mr.  A.  C.  Taintor 
and  Dr.  Little  for  a  like  work  here. 

Another  addition  has  been  made  to  our  local  scientific 
resources  during  the  year  in  the  shape  of  a  "  Chinese 
Polytechnic  Institution  and  Reading-Room."  This  insti- 
tution originated  in  a  desire,  on  the  part  of  some  of  our 
foreign  residents,  seconded  by  one  or  two  enlightened 
Chinamen,  to  bring  home  to  the  natives  generally  a 
knowledge  and  appreciation  of  foreign  arts  and  sciences. 
Mr.  Fryer,  who  holds  an  appointment  at  the  Chinese 
Arsenal  as  translator  of  foreign  scientific  works,  H.M. 
Consul  Mr.  Medhurst,  together  with  Mr.  T,  W.  Kings- 
mill  and  the  Chinese  Hsii,  Wang  and  Tong-king-sing  (the 
latter  being  the  official  manager  of  the  China  Merchants' 
Steam  Navigation  Co.),  have  been  the  prime  movers  of 
the  scheme  and  now  form  the  Committee.  A  modest 
building  has  been  erected  in  the  settlement  in  the  Chinese 
style,  and  the  nucleus  of  a  library  bought,  and  various 
models  collected.  The  cost  has  been  defrayed  partly  by 
subscriptions  from  the  foreign  community,  but  mainly 
by  contributions  from  high  Chinese  officials.  The  pro- 
spectus states  that  the  object  of  the  institution  is  to  bring 
the  sciences,  arts  and  manufactures  of  Western  nations 
in  the  most  practicable  manner  possible  before  the  notice 
of  the  Chinese  ;  the  means  proposed  being,  First,  an 
exhibition  of  machinery,  apparatus,  manufactured  goods, 
etc. ;  second,  lectures  and  classes  for  scientific  instruction  ; 
and  third,  a  Chinese  library  and  reading  room.  It 
adds  that  it  is  hoped  foreign  mercantile  firms  in  Shanghai 
and  other  ports  of  China  will  see  that  it  will  be  greatly 
to  their  advantage,  not  only  to  countenance  this  exhibition 
themselves,  but  also  to  prevail  on  the  firms  they  are 
connected  with  at  home  to  render  as  much  assistance 
as  possible.  In  how  far  the  very  sanguine  results 
aimed  at  in  the  original  prospectus  are  likely  to 
be  attained  it  is  hard  to  say :  at  present  Chinese 
officials     appear    to    be    mainly    interested    in    foreign 


RETROSPECT   OF   EVENTS    IN    CHINA     209 

science  only  in  so  far  as  it  may  aid  them  to  keep 
foreigners  at  bay. 

The  best  means  to  enhghten  the  Chinese  people  and  open 
the  country  to  foreign  enterprise  and  capital  is  the  using 
of  diplomatic  pressure  to  remove  the  ofiftcial  obstructions 
to  our  free  intercourse.  Left  to  themselves  the  Chinese 
officials,  however  much  we  may  teach  them  to  appreciate 
the  advantages  to  be  gained  by  the  application  of  our 
mechanical  arts  to  the  natural  resources  of  the  country, 
will  fear  to  apply  their  knowledge,  until  such  time  as 
they  feel  themselves  strong  enough  to  do  so  without  foreign 
aid  ;  and  we  therefore  are  somewhat  dubious  of  the  gain 
to  ourselves  in  subscribing  money  for  an  institution  thus 
placed.  The  permission  to  a  foreign  company  to  rent 
and  open  one  coal-mine  and  connect  it  by  rail  with  the 
nearest  port  would  teach  the  Chinese  by  practical  experi- 
ence that  which,  as  long  as  they  are  confined  to  books  and 
models,  they  will  never  really  appreciate.  ^  The  peaceful 
and  profitable  nature  of  such  undertakings  would  become 
obvious,  and  the  absurd  concession  to  Chinese  official 
prejudice,  which  denies  to  a  foreigner  the  right  to  rent 
land  or  occupy  a  house  for  business  purposes  outside  the 
limits  of  the  treaty  ports,  would  be  broken  through.  We 
have  heard  Chinese  officials  say  "  we  acknowledge  your 
superiority  in  mechanics,  but  we  deny  it  in  ethics  or 
morals."  Had  we  access  to  the  country  they  would  soon 
see  that,  apart  from  missionaries  whom,  wisely  or  not, 
our  Governments  compel  the  Chinese  to  tolerate,  in  im- 
proving their  mechanical  knowledge  we  should  be  quite 
content  to  leave  their  superiority  on  this  latter  point 
undisturbed,  while  our  welcome  from  the  wage-receiving 
class  would  be  of  the  warmest  character. 

The  year  1875  has  been  almost  barren  of  geographical 
discoveries  which  might  come  within  the  province  of  this 

'  Thus  early  was  the  idea  entertained  that  came  so  near  to 
realisation   in   after    years  at   the  Kiang    Peh  Ting  Mine,  then 
through  a  series  of  bitter  disappointments  sapped  the  writer's 
vitality  and  brought  on  his  last  illness. — a.  e.  n.  l. 
p 


210  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

society.  The  practical  withdrawal  of  diplomatic  com- 
munication with  Kashgar  and  the  delay  in  taking  effective 
steps  after  the  murder  of  Margary  have  stood  in  the  way 
of  opening  up  two  promising  routes.  The  unsettled 
position  of  affairs  and  the  want  of  confidence  thereby 
engendered  has  prevented  exploration  in  other  quarters, 
so  that  so  far  as  any  increase  in  our  geographical  knowledge 
of  the  outlying  portions  of  the  Chinese  Empire  is  concerned 
the  year  has  remained  almost  a  blank.  To  this  the  only 
exception  has  been  the  mission  of  enquiry  sent  into 
Yunnan.  At  the  end  of  the  year  the  mission  had  hardly 
advanced  beyond  Hankow  ;  whatever  its  results  there- 
fore, they  will  be  for  a  future  chronicle. 

On  the  side  of  India  geographical  research  likewise 
met  with  a  sudden  check.  It  seems  as  if  the  fatal  result 
of  Margary 's  journey  had  paralysed  the  Indian  Govern- 
ment ;  and  as  if,  in  lieu  of  urging  them  to  push  on  with 
greater  vigour,  and  morally,  if  not  physically,  to  avenge 
such  a  disgrace  on  their  own  frontiers,  they  had  submitted 
to  the  check  the  Chinese  had  designedly  imposed  upon 
them.  The  expeditions  of  the  pundits  under  Colonel 
Montgomery  still  continue,  but  scarely  with  the  energy 
which  marked  former  years.  Not  one  well  organised 
expedition  has  set  out,  and  the  frontiers  between  India 
and  Central  Asia  and  China  remain  still  practically  closed 
to  intercourse.  Yet  the  pundits  did  good  work.  That 
hitherto  enigmatical  district  known  vaguely  as  the  Pamir 
steppe  is  by  degrees  being  conquered  for  geography. 
The  hitherto  unknown  highlands  of  Tibet  have  been  to  a 
certain  extent  explored,  and  one  of  the  pundits  has  passed 
round  the  Tengri  Nor  and  connected  those  wild  regions 
with  the  series  of  observations  made  at  Yarkand  and 
Kashgar.  Of  Chinese  Turkestan  our  knowledge  has  met 
with  no  increase  during  the  year,  as  the  British  Govern- 
ment has  deferred  taking  advantage  of  the  right  of  travel 
and  residence  stipulated  for  by  Sir  Thomas  Forsyth  at 
Kashgar. 

Little  has  been  done  during  the  past  year  towards  the 


RETROSPECT   OF    EVENTS    IN    CHINA     211 

surveys  of  the  coast  of  China.  An  accurate  re-survey  of 
the  mouth  of  the  Yangtse  would  be  invaluable  both  from 
commercial  and  scientific  points  of  view.  One  of  H.M. 
naval  officers  has  been  told  off  for  the  duty  but  has  since 
been  invalided  ;  and  without  ample  assistance  the  work 
he  will  be  able  to  perform  will  be  of  little  utility.  The 
rate  of  advance  of  the  delta  of  the  Yangtse  is  a  matter  of 
the  highest  scientific  interest,  apart  from  the  bearing  it 
has  on  the  future  development,  not  to  say  existence,  of 
our  trade.  Taken  in  connection  with  Chinese  statistics, 
which,  in  a  more  or  less  trustworthy  form,  reach  back 
some  twenty  centuries,  there  is  here  afforded  a  means  of 
gauging  the  ancient  condition  of  the  eastern  portion  of  the 
Asiatic  continent.  The  old  coast-line  is  clearly  marked 
and  the  area  of  the  alluvial  plain  can  be  accurately 
measured.  A  clue  to  the  age  of  the  River  Yangtse  may 
thus  be  obtained,  by  measuring  its  present  rate  of  growth 
and  comparing  it  with  such  facts  as  we  can  gather  from 
the  ancient  records.  The  changes  going  on  are  so  vast 
and  rapid  as  to  have  altered  the  face  of  the  country  during 
the  stay  of  many  of  our  foreign  residents,  and  it  is  much 
to  be  wished  that  permanent  measures  should  be  taken 
for  marking  the  changes  as  they  occur  on  a  complete  and 
accurate  scale.  No  rapid  currents  exist  in  the  Yellow 
Sea,  hence  their  action  on  the  growth  of  the  delta  has 
been  comparatively  trifling  and  not  such  as  seriously  to 
affect  any  calculations  based  upon  these  measures. 

While,  however.  Great  Britain  has  been  inactive  in  the 
west  and  south-west,  the  Russians  have  made  another 
great  stride  in  the  north-west.  The  remaining  portion  of 
Kokand  has  been  overrun,  and  the  Russian  dominion  is 
now  conterminous  with  the  T'ien-shan,  that  great  range  of 
mountains,  whose  flanks  have,  since  the  beginning  of 
history,  afforded  the  highway  for  nations  east  and  west. 

The  Khanate  of  Kokand  comprises  the  richest  basin  of 
Central  Asia ;  it  is  well  watered  by  the  Naryn  and  it  pro- 
duces all  the  crops  and  fruits  of  temperate  latitudes.  Its 
climate  is  not  marked  by  the  severity  which  generally 


212  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

characterises  the  plateau,  and  it  is  abundantly  supplied 
with  mineral  wealth  in  the  shape  of  coal,  petroleum,  iron, 
lead,  and  most  of  the  other  useful  metals.  Already  one 
of  the  coal-fields  has  been  opened  and  a  coal  of  excellent 
quality  extracted.  The  importance  of  this  supply,  readily 
accessible  to  the  Jaxartes  and  the  Aral,  can  scarcely  be 
over-estimated.  Two  mines  have  also  been  opened  in  the 
Karatau,  one  near  Khojend,  and  another  not  far  from 
Tashkand.  If  freedom  of  trade  were  encouraged,  or  per- 
mitted, the  future  of  Central  Asia  would  be  assured.  The 
question  of  the  feasibility  of  again  connecting  the  Aral 
and  the  Caspian  Seas  by  means  of  the  old  bed  of  the  Oxus 
has  attracted  attention  during  the  year.  The  surveys 
and  observations  made  appear  to  show  that,  as  far  as 
levels  go,  no  difficulty  would  be  experienced.  The  desicca- 
tion of  Central  Asia  seems  however  to  have  been  progres- 
sive, and  there  is  not  now  a  sufficient  supply  of  water  in  the 
Upper  Oxus  to  carry  the  stream  across  the  intervening 
tract.  Partially,  at  least,  this  is  due  to  the  waste  incurred 
through  the  present  system  of  irrigation,  which  allows 
large  bodies  of  water  to  run  off  uselessly  into  the  desert. 

Japan  has  shewn  us  an  example  of  activity  in  providing, 
in  her  treaty  with  Corea,  for  a  survey  of  the  coast.  It  is 
to  be  hoped  that  this  useful  work  will  shortly  be  put  in 
hand.  Our  present  charts  of  the  Corean  coast  are  most 
defective.  A  farther  survey  of  the  gulf  of  Tongking  and 
the  coast  of  Cochin-China  generally  is  also  much  needed  : 
and  now  that  the  port  of  Kiung-chow  in  Hainan  has  been 
opened,  we  hope  soon  to  see  the  work  taken  up  and  our 
knowledge  of  those  seas  extended.  The  French  marine 
has  surveyed  the  approaches  to  the  newly-opened  ports 
in  Annam,  and  has  published  charts  of  the  entrance  to  the 
Caocam  from  the  sea  to  Haiphong,  and  of  the  river  mouths 
and  internal  waters  of  the  provinces  of  Haichong  and 
Quangyen.  The  Russians,  on  their  part,  have  surveyed 
some  450  miles  of  the  eastern  coast  of  Siberia  from  Imperial 
Harbour  to  Castries  Bay. 

In  our  own  Journal  Dr.  Bretschneider  gives  valuable 


RETROSPECT   OF    EVENTS    IN    CHINA     213 

notes  of  the  mediaeval  geography  of  Central  and  Eastern 
Asia  ;  and  the  Archimandrite  Palladius  throws  a  new 
light  on  the  travels  of  Marco  Polo  in  North  China.  The 
Rev.  Mr.  Holcombe  describes  in  picturesque  language 
a  journey  through  Shansi  and  Shensi ;  which,  although 
passing  over  little  actually  new  ground,  adds  much  to  our 
knowledge  of  these  not  easily  accessible  provinces. 

The  Chinese  Review  continues  a  series  of  valuable  papers 
by  Mr.  W.  F.  Mayers  on  Chinese  explorations  in  the  Indian 
Ocean,  while  Mr.  T.  W.  Kingsmill  makes  an  attempt  to 
explain  the  geographical  puzzle  of  the  Yu-king. 

The  Chinese  Recorder  and  Missionary  Journal  completed 
during  the  year  the  memoranda  written  by  Dr.  Bretschnei- 
der  upon  Chinese  Mediaeval  Travels  to  the  west,  which  have 
since  been  published  in  a  separate  form  ;  and  which  will 
remain  a  valuable  aid  to  all  engaged  in  the  study  of  Asiatic 
antiquities.  Mr.  G.  Phillips  contributes  notes  on  the 
position  of  the  Zaitun  of  Marco  Polo,  in  reference  to  which 
he  has  carried  on  an  interesting  discussion  with  Colonel 
Yule.  Of  a  more  historical  character  was  a  paper  read  by 
Mr.,  Clements  Markham  on  the  26th  April  before  the 
Royal  Geographical  Society,  giving  a  rtsume  of  explora- 
tions in  Tibet,  and  more  especially  of  the  very  remarkable 
journey  of  Mr.  Bogle  in  1774.  The  trade  routes  to  South- 
em  China  were  likewise  the  subject  of  a  paper  by  Mr.  J. 
Corryton.  Major  Herbert  Wood,  who  accompanied  the 
Russian  expedition  to  the  Oxus,  has  made  valuable  notes 
on  his  journey,  which  it  is  understood  will  shortly  be 
published. 

In  the  Berlin  Geographical  Society  Baron  von  Richtho- 
ven  read  some  interesting  notes  on  the  population  of 
China,  which,  contrary  to  the  general  opinion  of  those 
calculated  to  judge,  he  rates  at  the  enormous  amount  of 
415  millions.  The  publication  of  the  Baron's  work  upon 
China,  more  particularly  upon  the  geology  and  mineral 
resources  of  the  country,  is  still  delayed.  The  cost  of 
his  explorations,  was,  it  will  be  remembered,  borne 
by  the  merchants  of  China  in  the  hope  that  a  knowledge 


214  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

of  her  undeveloped  resources  would  lead  to  the  throwing 
open  of  the  country  to  their  enterprise.  Alas  !  It  now 
looks  as  though  it  would  be  left  to  their  posterity  to'reap 
any  reward  of  their  enterprise.  A  Russian  traveller, 
Mr.  Sasnofelsy,  left  Hankow  on  the  nth  December,  1874, 
on  a  journey  overland  to  Siberia.  He  hoped  to  be  able  to 
pass  through  Kansu  and  thence  by  way  of  Ulia-sutai. 
An  account  of  his  journey  has  not  yet  been  received. 

Upon  the  whole  the  geographical  interest  of  the  year 
has  been  mainly  retrospective  ;  and  but  little  really  new 
has  been  added  to  our  stock  of  knowledge.  It  is  to  be 
hoped,  however,  that  the  present  state  of  stagnation  may 
not  long  be  allowed  to  continue  ;  that  the  check  given 
to  the  Yunnan  expedition  will  lead  to  a  strong  rebound, 
and  that  the  blood  of  poor  Margary  will  not  have  been 
shed  in  vain.  If  the  Chinese  are  taught  to  respect  and 
aid  foreign  explorers,  as  they  can  and  should,  there  wiU 
doubtless  be  many  more  capable  men  entering  the  field, 
and  much  of  the  remaining  terra  incognita  of  China  and 
Central  Asia  will  be  cleared  up.  The  late  edicts  on  the 
duty  of  protecting  men  from  the  west,  drawn  from  the 
authorities  at  Peking,  will  we  trust  have  due  weight  with 
the  officials  throughout  the  country  ;  for  it  is  from  the 
official  class  alone  that  our  obstacles  come  ;  the  masses 
of  the  people  are  curious  but  mostly  inoffensive  :  they 
take  their  cue  from  the  mandarins,  and  if  the  authorities 
treat  us  with  respect  we  shall  hear  no  more  of  mob  disturb- 
ances impeding  the  progress  of  a  traveller. 

The  condition  of  our  settlement  during  the  past  year 
has,  so  far  as  the  general  health  of  the  foreign  residents 
is  concerned,  been  eminently  satisfactory.  Indeed  if  we 
take  1875  as  a  standard  we  may  class  Shanghai  as  an 
eminently  healthy  locality.  The  number  of  foreigners 
resident  and  non-resident  is  estimated  as  about  3,000  and 
the  total  of  deaths  during  the  year  was  only  sixty-seven, 
giving  a  mortality  of  22.3  per  mille.  Too  much  rehance 
must  not,  however,  be  placed  upon  these  figures,  as  many 
who  fall  dangerously  ill  are  sent  home  ;  it  is  consequently 


RETROSPECT   OF   EVENTS    IN    CHINA     215 

impossible  to  frame  statistics  of  any  accurate  scientific 
nature,  except  for  the  comparison  of  one  year  with 
another  :  all  we  can  positively  state  is  that  the  mortality 
of  1875  was  considerably  lower  than  that  of  any  previous 
year. 

An  outbreak  of  cholera  occurred  in  the  year,  chiefly 
among  the  non-resident  (floating)  population  :  the  range 
of  the  epidemic  was  limited,  less  than  twenty  persons 
being  attacked  by  the  disease,  of  whom,  however,  more 
than  half  died.  The  disease  was  seemingly  not  imported 
by  sea  ;  it  would  appear  to  be  present  among  the  natives 
every  year  at  certain  seasons.  It  is  noticeable  that  the 
past  year  was  remarkable  for  heavy  rainfalls  and  higher 
maximum  temperatures  than  usual,  and  these  phenomena 
may  have  influenced  the  disease.  It  is  to  be  expected 
that  the  settlements  should  gradually  become  more 
healthy,  as  year  by  year  the  ground  is  being  raised  and 
the  drainage  improved.  Paddy  fields  are  giving  place  to 
cotton,  and  thus  the  unwholesome  swamps  of  which  the 
former  consist  are  rapidly  being  driven  from  our  immediate 
neighbourhood.  In  increasing  the  area  of  underground 
drainage,  however,  much  care  is  needed  to  have  the  drains 
constantly  flushed  and  properly  ventilated  :  for  this  reason 
in  a  place  like  Shanghai  surface  drains  are  safer,  and  can, 
we  think,  be  made  equally  efficient. 

In  concluding  our  review  of  the  scientific  progress  of 
the  year  in  this  part  of  the  world,  we  must  not  omit  to 
chronicle  the  very  satisfactory  progress  of  the  museum 
of  natural  history  established  in  connection  with  our 
society. 


Part  III :    Drama  and   Legend 

THE   CHINESE   DRAMA 

According  to  the  Shu-King  or  Book  of  History  edited  by- 
Confucius,  the  Chinese  practised  music  from  the  eariiest 
times,  as  far  back  as  2200  B.C.  The  Emperor  Shun,  the 
founder  of  the  second  great  dynasty  of  Hsia  in  China's 
Golden  Age,  is  reported  to  have  had  a  master  of  music 
and  ceremonies.  Their  rehgious  worship  was  always 
accompanied  by  music  and  dancing,  which  last  might  more 
fitly  be  called  posturing,  like  that  which  we  see  to-day  in 
the  Shinto  temples  in  Japan.  These  old  dances,  we  are 
told,  exhibited  the  occupations  of  the  people  of  those 
times,  and,  after  the  symmetrical  fashion  of  the  Chinese, 
are  described  as  having  represented  the  four  occupations 
of  ploughing,  harvesting,  war,  and  peace,  and  the  four 
corresponding  sensations  of  work,  joy,  fatigue,  and  con- 
tent. The  Shu-King  covers  a  period  of  seventeen  cen- 
turies from  2400  B.C.  to  720  B.C.  We  are  there  told  that 
the  performers  carried  shields  representing  war,  hoes  for 
agriculture,  and  flags  for  victory,  while  sacrificing  to  the 
mountains,  rivers,  and  earth.  A  later  Chinese  treatise 
describes  these  pantomimes  more  in  detail.  The  dancers 
entered  from  the  north  and  displayed  in  their  positions 
and  gestures  an  order  of  battle.  Thence  the  dancers 
advanced  to  the  south,  and  formed  up  in  line,  while  the 
leaders  represented  the  celebrated  Chow-Kung  and  Chao- 
Kung,  the  advisers  of  Wen-wang,  the  literary  prince  and 
son  of  Wu-wang,  the  military  prince  who  destroyed  the 
corrupt  dynasty  of  Hsia,  and  founded  that  of  Chow,  under 
which  flourished  the  three  great  sages  of  China,  Confucius, 
Mencius,  and  Lao-tse.     The  writer  goes  on  to  say  that 

216 


THE    CHINESE    DRAMA  217 

in  the  sixth  action  the  dancers  stood  still  like  mountains, 
thus,  in  the  sententious  language  of  the  native  historians, 
representing  the  history  of  the  conquest  of  China  by  Wdn- 
wang,  who,  at  his  first  entry  into  the  empire,  defeated 
King  Chow,  advanced  into  the  country,  set  out  the  bounds 
of  his  States,  and  then  governed  them  by  the  sage  counsels 
of  his  Ministers.  These  ballets  and  pantomines  had  been 
performed  from  the  earliest  times  by  the  Chinese,  but 
gradually  they  developed  into  such  licence  that  under 
the  Emperors  of  the  Chow  dynasty  they  were  prohibited 
in  connection  with  worship,  and  the  actors  were  made  into 
a  degraded  class,  which  they  remain  to  this  day. 

The  stage  in  China,  as  we  see  it  to-day,  appears  almost 
exactly  identical  with  the  stage  in  England  in  Shake- 
speare's time.  The  only  pictorial  representation  that 
has  come  down  to  us  of  the  Globe  Theatre,  Blackfriars, 
is  by  the  Dutch  traveller  De  Witte.  There,  as  now  in 
China,  we  see  a  stage  composed  of  a  square  platform  pro- 
jecting into  the  pit,  with  a  door  of  entrance  and  a  door  of 
exit  on  each  side  of  the  rear  wall  There  is  a  total  absence 
of  scenery,  so  that  the  whole  weight  of  the  performance 
falls  upon  the  actors,  who  were  doubtless  as  universally 
excellent  in  Shakespeare's  time  as  they  are  to-day  in 
China.  The  musicians  are  seated  at  the  back  of  the  stage 
in  full  view  of  the  audience.  And  the  wealthy  patrons 
are  seated  in  galleries  round  the  open  courtyard.  It  is 
particularly  noticeable  that  the  pit,  in  all  theatrical  repre- 
sentations in  China,  whether  given  in  the  courtyards  of 
the  temples,  in  the  halls  of  the  guilds,  or  in  the  houses 
of  the  rich,  is  always  open  free  to  the  poor,  a  custom 
which  I  should  not  be  sorry  to  see  imitated  in  England 
to-day.  In  connection  with  this  fact  it  is  interesting  to 
mention  that,  when  travelling  in  China  through  the  scenes 
rendered  famous  in  song  and  history,  I  have  been  aston- 
ished at  the  accurate  knowledge  of  the  old  wars  and 
dynasties  displayed  by  illiterate  boatmen  on  the  river  and 
by  our  porters  on  land  journeys.  They  are  never  tired 
of  pointing  out  historic  sites  to  the  foreign  traveller,  and 


2i8  GLEANINGS    FROM   CHINA 

expatiating  upon  the  great  deeds  of  former  generations. 
It  was  a  long  time  before  I  could  learn  whence  these 
men  derived  their  knowledge,  so  far  surpassing  the 
acquaintance  with  history  displayed  by  similar  classes 
in  our  own  country.  I  at  last  discovered  that  they  had 
learnt  their  history  in  that  pleasantest  and  most  impres- 
sive of  all  schools,  the  Theatre.  Elaborate  historical 
dramas  form  the  bulk  of  the  performances  given  in  the 
public  theatre,  which  almost  every  village  in  China  pos- 
sesses, by  companies  of  strolling  players  who  are  paid  by 
subscriptions  from  the  more  wealthy  inhabitants. 

These  companies  are  generally  hired  for  a  week  or  a 
fortnight.  The  performance  commences  at  noon,  and 
goes  on  till  about  nine  at  night.  The  extraordinary 
endurance  of  the  actors,  an  endurance  characteristic  of 
the  Chinese  in  all  their  avocations,  is  shown  by  the  long 
successive  hours  they  spend  upon  the  stage.  And  as  all 
the  important  pieces  are  sung  to  the  accompaniment  of 
the  band,  how  they  support  the  strain  upon  the  voice  is 
almost  incomprehensible.  They  have  a  large  rtpertoire 
which  they  carry  in  their  heads.  Many  of  them  have  no 
books  of  the  plays.  They  are  apprenticed  as  children, 
and  so  learn  the  pieces  by  rote  at  an  age  when  the  memory 
is  especially  vigorous.  A  mark  of  attention  to  a  distin- 
guished visitor  is  to  hand  him  the  repertoire,  and  ask  him 
to  choose  a  play  out  of  some  hundred  pieces  contained 
therein.  I  have  often  selected  an  unpopular  and  seldom- 
performed  play,  and  never  found  the  test  too  much  for 
them,  the  piece  being  produced  immediately ;  on  the  other 
hand,  should  a  play  on  the  programme  happen  to  contain 
a  character  of  the  same  name  as  that  of  the  visitor  it  is 
at  once  suppressed.  Although  there  is  no  scenery  the 
dresses  are  extremely  handsome,  elaborate  embroideries 
being  worn  by  princes  and  generals,  and  generally  the 
dressing  and  get-up  are  careful  and  accurate.  There  is  no 
curtain  and  no  drop  scene.  And,  curiously  enough,  there 
is  no  interval  between  successive  plays,  only  a  peculiar 
note  is  sounded  on  the  cymbals,  a  signal  known  to  the 


THE    CHINESE    DRAMA  219 

initiated.  This  has  led  Europeans  to  state  that  a  Chinese 
play  went  on  for  ever.  It  is  true  that  sometimes,  when  a 
succession  of  historical  plays  is  given,  such  as  Shake- 
speare's dramas  of  the  Plantagenets,  the  same  story  may 
go  on  for  three  or  four  successive  days.  There  is,  more- 
over, one  celebrated  play  which  has  no  less  than  twenty- 
four  acts  ;  as  a  rule,  however,  the  lighter  Chinese  pieces 
are  even  shorter  than  ours. 

While  theatricals  are  being  performed  the  whole  village 
is  en  fete,  all  in  their  best  clothes,  the  ladies  in  the  galleries 
with  little  tables  on  which  are  tea  and  cakes  and  other 
delicacies,  while  families  in  the  wide  area  of  the  open  pit 
sit  all  day  long  with  their  tea  and  pipes  enjoying  themselves 
in  a  way  that  is  a  pleasure  to  see.  One  other  detail  that 
recalls  Shakespeare  is  the  motto  which  adorns  the  rear 
of  almost  every  stage  in  China,  written  in  four  gorgeous 
gold  characters  "  We  hold  the  mirror  up  to  Nature  "  ! 
This  no  doubt  is  a  fair  argument  to  show  that  Shakespeare, 
among  his  other  travels,  visited  China  !  In  the  cities, 
performances  are  given  in  the  very  handsome  theatres 
attached  to  the  guildhalls,  of  which  every  large  trading 
city  in  China  has  several.  These,  with  their  elaborate 
stone  and  wood  carving,  gilding,  and  painting,  are  excep- 
tionally handsome  structures.  Performances  are  given 
on  the  feast  days  of  the  guilds,  when  the  members  are 
invited  to  dinners  quite  as  elaborate  as  those  given  by 
our  own  city  companies.  The  feast,  which  extends  over 
several  hours,  is  accompanied  with  much  ceremony  and 
ancient  ritual  observances,  while  the  plays  go  on  uninter- 
ruptedly. A  common  penalty,  when  disputes  are  arbi- 
trated by  the  guilds,  is  fining  the  defendant  in  a  theatrical 
performance,  which,  if  extended  over  the  usual  three  days, 
costs  about  10/.,  the  average  number  of  a  Pan-tse,  or 
company,  being  thirty  men,  female  parts  being  all  taken 
by  men  and  boys,  as  in  our  Middle  Ages. 

The  most  numerous  and  regular  dramatic  performances 
are  still  given  in  the  Buddhist  temples,  and  it  is  a  curious 
fact  that  the  Chinese  word  for  poetry,  Sze,  is  composed 


220  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

of  the  hieroglyphs  "  speech  "  and  "  temple."  In  connec- 
tion with  this — though  one  must  not  place  too  much 
dependence  upon  Chinese  etymology — it  is  also  curious  to 
note  that  the  word  for  player,  you,  is  formed  from  the 
hieroglyphs,  "  men,  a  hundred,  heart,  hand,"  which  to 
the  imaginative  seems  to  mean  a  man  equal  to  representing 
an  indefinite  number  of  feelings  and  actions.  During 
their  long  hours  of  song  the  actors  are  refreshed  by  means 
of  shabbily  dressed  coolies,  who  walk  casually  on  to  the 
stage  and  hand  them  tea  at  intervals,  but  whom  the  audi- 
ence are  supposed  to  regard  as  invisible.  Rough  indica- 
tions of  scenery,  similar  to  the  sheet  of  Pyramus  and  Thisbe, 
are  given  in  a  primitive  way.  A  beleaguered  general, 
sitting  on  a  chair  raised  on  a  table,  addressing  an  actor 
standing  on  the  stage,  is  supposed  to  be  parleying  with 
the  commander  of  the  besieging  force.  Cavalry  are  indi- 
cated by  a  whip  held  in  the  hand,  and  when  dismounting, 
or  mounting  to  ride  off,  they  go  through  the  action  of 
bestriding  a  horse.  The  actors  who  take  women's  parts, 
speak  in  a  high  falsetto  voice,  and  in  their  gait  and  get-up 
are  indistinguishable  from  real  women.  A  table  covered 
with  an  embroidered  cloth  may  represent  a  throne,  or 
with  plain  red  cloth  a  magistrate's  yamen. 

The  dressing-room  is  a  half-open  gallery  running  along 
the  side  of  the  courtyard  behind  the  stage,  where  the  actors 
change  their  dresses  and  alter  their  make-up  with  wonder- 
ful celerity.  Their  wardrobes,  carried  about  from  place 
to  place  in  heavy  iron-bound  chests,  are  often  of  great 
value,  and  some  of  the  most  beautiful  embroideries  brought 
to  Europe  for  sale  are  discarded  actors'  dresses.  As  in 
most  things,  Chinese  actors,  who  with  barbers  are  the  sole 
degraded  caste  in  China,  their  children  being  inadmissible 
to  the  official  examinations,  have  a  euphemistic  synonym, 
and  in  literary  language  are  known  as  the  Children  of 
the  Pear-garden,  so  named  from  a  school  of  acting  founded 
by  the  great  patron  of  actors,  the  Emperor  Shiian-tsung 
of  the  Tang  dynasty  (720  a.d.),  who  invited  troupes  of 
actors  to  study  in  his  pear  orchard.     This  Emperor  also 


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THE    CHINESE    DRAMA  221 

supervised  the  performances  of  the  ladies  of  the  hareem, 
and  is  said  to  have  composed  many  new  airs  to  the  oper- 
ettas then  in  vogue,  which  airs  are  known  to  this  day 
as  the  perfumes  of  the  Li-chi,  the  celebrated  luscious  fruit 
of  South  China.  He  is  said  to  have  established  a  bureau 
for  theatricals  and  music,  and  took  much  the  same 
interest  in  the  stage  as  the  great  Napoleon  did  in  the 
Comedie  Francaise,  without  neglecting  other  work.  It  is 
noteworthy  that  this  same  Emperor  founded  the  renowned 
Hanlin  college,  the  "  Academy  "  of  China. 

Women  in  China  enjoyed  great  freedom  in  ancient 
times,  as  is  shown  by  the  Book  of  Odes,  the  oldest  extant 
Chinese  work.  And  since  women  have  been  forbidden  on 
the  stage  their  social  position  appears  to  have  much 
declined.  A  Chinese  theatrical  company  is  rigorously 
divided  into  fixed  parts  as  in  Europe,  each  actor  having 
his  technical  name,  such  as  Pere  Noble,  Jeune  premier, 
Premier  comique.  Second  comique,  Jeune  Premiere,  and 
a  part  not  in  our  repertory,  the  Hwun  or  Ghost,  as  well 
as,  of  course,  the  Chou,  which  may  be  literally  translated 
"  Supers." 

Courtesans,  of  whom  the  Chinese  say  "  the  women 
who  smile  in  public,"  are  often  represented  on  the  stage, 
their  position  being  that  of  the  courtesan  in  ancient  Greece. 
They  must  be  accomplished,  and  excel  in  singing  and 
dancing  and  in  knowledge  of  literature.  Moral  tendency 
is  strongly  insisted  upon  in  Chinese  plays.  Obscenity  is 
a  crime  by  Chinese  law,  and  the  punishment  for  writers 
guilty  of  it  is  imprisonment  as  long  as  their  works  are 
extant.  In  short,  except  in  the  Alsatias  of  our  treaty 
ports,  the  Chinese  theatre  is  distinctly  educative  and 
moral ;  the  denouement  is  invariably  the  triumph  of 
virtue.  The  drama,  say  Chinese  writers,  should  present 
pictures  of  the  highest  teaching  to  those  too  ignorant  to 
be  able  to  read  ;  the  penal  code,  which  punishes  immoral 
writers,  states  the  object  of  theatricals  to  be  to  offer  true 
though  imaginary  pictures  of  good  men  and  chaste 
women,   of  affectionate  and  obedient  children,   and  of 


222  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

scenes  calculated  to  lead  the  spectator  in  the  paths  of 
virtue.  In  a  popular  piece  called  The  Maid's  Intrigues, 
Mrs.  Han  tells  her  daughter,  "  Don't  you  know  that  at 
this  day,  the  same  as  in  old  times,  the  union  of  a  man 
with  a  woman  cannot  take  place  until  consecrated  by 
the  appointed  rites  and  ceremonies  ?  "  The  only  inter- 
ference with  the  stage  in  China  is  the  statute  forbidding 
the  representation  of  Emperors  of  the  reigning  dynasty. 
In  other  respects  every  one  is  free  to  set  up  a  theatre  and 
act  as  he  likes,  and  the  result  of  this  system,  controlled 
by  the  people,  is  in  my  opinion  far  more  conducive  to  good 
morals  than  are  the  results  of  our  own  capricious  licensing 
system. 

The  modern  stage,  as  it  exists  to-day  in  China,  dates,  it 
is  said,  from  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Wen-ti,  the  founder 
of  the  Sui  dynasty  (580  a.d.),  and  the  bulk  of  the  plays 
were  written  during  the  three  flourishing  epochs  of  modern 
Chinese  literature — three  distinct  periods  :  that  of  the 
Tang  dynasty  (720  a.d.  to  905  a.d.),  that  of  the  Sung 
dynasty  (960  to  1119  a.d.),  and  that  of  the  Tartar  and 
Mongol  dynasties  Kin  and  Yuen  (1123  to  1341  a.d.). 
From  the  last  of  these,  the  Mongol  dynasty,  which 
existed  for  eighty-nine  years  (1270  to  1368  a.d.),  448 
plays,  whose  authorship  is  known,  105  anonymous  plays, 
and  four  by  celebrated  courtesans  have  survived  to  the 
present  day.  The  author  of  the  Collected  Plays  of  the 
Yuen  Dynasty  enumerates  twelve  categories  of  plays, 
and  it  is  noticeable  that  in  the  first  category  he  classes 
the  plays  that  evidence  the  transforming  influence 
upon  character  of  gods  and  spirits.  He  tries  to  lay  down 
canons,  and  tells  us  that  a  regular  drama  should  be  in 
four  acts,  to  which  may  be  added  a  prologue  if  necessary. 
The  prologue  exposes  the  situation.  In  the  first  act  the 
plot  is  developed  ;  in  the  second  and  third  the  action 
proceeds  and  the  plot  ripens  ;  in  the  fourth  act  comes 
the  climax,  which  changes  the  course  of  events,  and  in 
which  crime  is  unexpectedly  punished  and  expiated.  It 
is  astonishing  that  out  of  the  enormous  rt^pertoire  of  plays 


THE   CHINESE    DRAMA  223 

existing  in  China  a  few  specimens  only  have  been  trans- 
lated into  European  languages  !  Yet  many  of  them  are 
exceedingly  interesting,  not  only  as  pictures  of  the  past — 
Kwei  men,  the  gate  of  the  shades,  as  the  Chinese  call  it 
— but  for  their  intrinsically  interesting  plot  and  dialogue. 

The  first  Chinese  play  ever  translated  into  an  European 
language  was  published  by  the  Jesuit  father  Premare, 
1735  A.D.  Lest  European  readers  should  imagine  that 
Chinese  plays  are  wanting  in  interest,  it  is  well  to  quote 
what  Voltaire  said  of  this  production.  The  Orphan  of  the 
Chao  Family.  "  Malgre  I'incroyable,  il  y  regne  de  I'interet, 
et,  malgre  la  foule  des  evenements,  tout  est  de  la  clarte 
la  plus  lumineuse."  Some  of  the  lighter  plays  are  full 
of  poetical  fancies,  strange  to  us  but  very  characteristic 
to  one  who  knows  China  and  the  Chinese.  Thus  in  the 
opening  scene  of  the  Ho  Han  Shan,  the  hero  Chang-yi 
retires  to  an  upper  room  with  his  wife  and  son  to  look  on 
at  the  snow-storm.  After  drinking  a  few  cups  of  wine  his 
clouded  senses  lead  him  to  imagine  it  is  spring-time  ; 
the  snow  becomes  pear  blossom,  the  ruddy  clouds  flowering 
willows  ;  he  imagines  rich  silk  draperies  are  hung  before 
him,  and  at  his  feet  flowered  carpets.  The  usual  seven- 
syllable  metre  of  the  play  is  dropped  in  this  scene,  and  the 
versification  is  irregular,  a  relief  upon  the  fixed  csesura 
and  alliteration  of  the  regular  declamations. 

Wine  plays  a  great  part  in  all  the  old  Chinese  plays  ; 
a  very  little  excites  the  sedentary  and  literary  Chinaman, 
and  he  is  always  supposed  to  take  a  few  cups  as  a  stimulus 
to  versification,  of  which  to  this  day  the  cultured  classes 
are  extremely  fond.  Hao  chiu  Hang — "  good  wine  capa- 
city " — is  a  necessary  qualification  for  a  diner-out  in 
China,  where  every  guest  is  pressed  to  drink  and  empty 
his  cup  many  times  during  the  course  of  a  feast.  And 
yet  noisy  drunkenness  is  scarcely  seen,  and  this  although 
there  is  no  tax  on  spirits,  which  are  extraordinarily  cheap 
in  China. 

Theatricals  are  still  a  part  of  the  hfe  of  the  people  ; 
scarcely  any  public  function  goes  on  without  them,  and 


224  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

they  are  indissolubly  connected  with  rehgious  observances. 
Thus,  when  I  had  occasion  to  move  my  house  of  business 
from  one  part  of  the  city  of  Chungking  to  another,  a 
semi-rehgious,  semi-theatrical  performance  was  indulged 
in  by  my  Chinese  employes.  We  formed  a  kind  of  pro- 
cession through  the  streets,  four  coolies  bearing  in  a  large 
brasier  the  fire  from  the  kitchen  in  the  old  house  with 
which  to  start  the  kitchen  fire  in  the  new  house,  while 
plays  were  recited  to  the  accompaniment  of  a  string  and 
brass  band.  The  carrying  on  of  the  old  fire  is  to  guard 
against  the  business  being  held  responsible  for  debts 
contracted  by  previous  occupants  of  the  new  quarters. 

The  characters  in  Chinese  plays  are  really  living  men 
and  women  ;  their  authors  strive  to  hold  the  mirror  up 
to  Nature.  Unlike  the  old  Indian  dramatists,  who  gave 
full  scope  to  their  flights  of  imagination  and  peopled  their 
plays  with  impossible  monsters  and  supernatural  beings, 
the  Chinese  playwrights  display  a  close  observation  of 
human  nature,  the  foibles  of  which  they  effectually  satirise. 
As  with  Shakespeare,  their  best  plays  are  not  of  an  age  but 
for  all  time,  and  he  who  would  understand  the  Chinese 
character  cannot  learn  to  do  so  more  easily  and  pleasantly 
than  by  a  study  of  their  Drama. 


BORROWING   BOOTS 

Translated  from  the  original  Chinese  :  a  two-hundred-year-old 
Chinese  Farce,  still  popular  in  China,  and  played  at  the 
present  day  according  to  rival  renderings,  one  that  of 
Tientsin,  one  that  of  Soochow.  In  both  cases  it  is  sung  to 
Chinese  tunes,  in  which  most  Europeans  declare  themselves 
unable  to  detect  any  melody. 

DRAMATIS    PERSONS 

Liu        .        .  ...     A  Retired  Official. 

Chang        ....  .        .     A  Spendthrift. 

Boy Servant  to  Liu. 

Time  :     About  a.d.  1680. 
Place  :     Soochow  (near  Shanghai),  China. 

Scene  i. — The  Road  outside  Liu's  House. 

Scene  2. — Reception  Hall  in  Liu's  House. 

Scene  3. — A  Rough  Road  in  another  Part  of  the  Town. 

Scene  i. — The   Road  outside   Liu's   House. 
Eyiter  Chang  in  shippers. 

Chang.    {Sings)  i . 

All  my  life  I'm  telling  falsehoods  ; 

Lies  to  me  are  mother's  milk  ; 
Thus  a  jolly  Hfe  I'm  leading  : 

Sleep  on  clover,  dress  in  silk. 

Chang's  my  name  and  Bragg's  my  calling, 

Youngest  I  of  brothers  three. 
What  though  my  dress  be  slightly  wanting, 
Deportment  is  my  forte  you  see. 
Q  225 


226  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

3. 

My  tongue's  my  sword  to  carve  out  fortune. 
Scattering  scandal  right  and  left : 

Me,  though  all  I  have  be  stolen, 
No  one  dare  accuse  of  theft. 

4. 
But,  if  honesty  you  wish  for. 

My  elder  brother  you  should  see  : 
He's  a  man — poor,  harmless  fellow ! 

Scarce  could  bear  to  kill  a  flea. 

5. 

How  to  deceive  the  common  people, 

My  genius  never  is  at  fault ; 
Telling  of  stone  josses  winking 

Or  snow  converted  into  salt. 

(Slower)  6. 

Creeping,   crouching,   crying,   cringing, 
None  my  manners  can  resist. 

Sly  deceiving,  calm  pretending. 
On  my  fellows  I  subsist. 

(Spoken)  Yes,  and  to-night  I'm  going  to  subsist  on 
my  friend  the  Taotai,  who  gives  a  big  dinner  party  in 
acknowledgment  of  his  birthday  congratulations.  I 
sent  him  a  trifling  present  and  got  this  invitation  in 
return.  Ha  !  Ha !  (rubbing  his  hands)  and  won't  I 
have  a  good  dinner  too.  It  isn't  every  day  I  get  a  good 
dinner,  indeed  some  days  I  get  no  dinner  at  all.  Perhaps 
you  will  be  surprised  to  hear  this  of  a  young  swell  like 
me,  but  I  assure  you  it  is  the  truth  and  a  very  sad  truth 
too.  Ah  !  I  forgot,  you  don't  exactly  know  who  I  am. 
Well,  my  name,  but  I  told  you  this  before,  is  Chang  and  I 
am  a  mandarin  ;  at  least  I  ought  to  be  if  I  had  my  rights, 
but  I  couldn't  pass  those  confounded  examinations,  and, 
though  my  father  was  Magistrate  of  this  City  before  his 


BORROWING    BOOTS  227 

death,  those  wretched  examiners  gave  me  no  help  and  I 

was  plucked,  yes,  mercilessly  plucked  after  spending  six 

days  in  a  cell  no  bigger   than   this  {extends  his  arms). 

Ugh  !     Such  a  time  as  I  had  of  it  !  all  the  good  dinners 

in  the  world  won't  enable  me  to  forget  those  six  days 

on  rice  and  cold  tea,  with  no  company  but  my  pen  and 

a  quire  of  blank  paper.     And   nowadays  any  low-bom 

villain  who  chooses  to  mug  away  at  his  books  may  become 

a  Magistrate  and  even  Governor  of  the  Province,  while  a 

gentleman  like  myself  is  left  out  in  the  cold.     It  is  too 

bad  !     If  I  weren't  afraid  of  losing  my  head  I'd  get  up 

a  rebellion  in  the  name  of  the  oppressed  peasantry.     Ah  ! 

it  wasn't  so  in  old  times  :    then  a  man  who  had  a  sword 

and  knew  how  to  use  it  could  make  himself  a  prince,  but 

now  only  bookworms  get  promoted.     Fah  !    I'm  sick  at 

the  sight  of  them,  poor  emaciated  wretches,  just  like  that 

old  brother  of  mine,  who  has  just  been  made  an  expectant 

prefect,  a  poor  feeble  wretch  whom  a  dozen  cups  of  wine 

would  put  under  the  table — while  I — but  I'm  forgetting 

— where  was  I  ?     Ah  !    Yes  !     If  I  go  on  talking  hke  this 

I  shan't  get  any  dinner.    Well,  to  tell  the  truth,  I  haven't 

got  any  dress  boots,  nor  any  money  to  buy  any  with. 

If  I  don't  catch  some  country  fellow  soon,  on  whom  I  can 

impose  my  superior  wisdom  and  worm  or  gamble  some 

money  out  of,  I  shall  be  done  up  altogether.    Those  miserly 

friends  of  mine  are  getting  all  tired  of  me  and  I  don't 

know  whom  to  borrow  from  next.     Confound  those  boots. 

Where  on  earth  to  get    a  pair,  I  don't  know.     I  can't  go 

to  a  dinner  party  like  this  {holds  up  his  dress  shewing  his 

feet  with  old  shoes  on).     They  wouldn't  let  me  in  for  all 

my  fine  clothes,  and  it  is  getting  late  already.    What  shall 

I   do  ?     {Draws  out  large  red  invitation.)     Ah !    {Sighs ! 

Sings.) 

I. 

The  dinner  hour's  approaching  ; 

I'm  in  a  dreadful  fix  : 
With  feet  unshod  I'm  surely 

Unfit  with  swells  to  mix. 


228  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

2. 

Oh  !    tell  me  what  to  do  ! 

I'm   really  in   despair. 
How  to  go  out  to  dinner 

With  no  dress  boots  to  wear  ? 

The  dinner  hour's  approaching,  etc. 

:  3. 

Was  ever  plight  so  cursed  ? 

Decked  out  in  these  fine  clothes  : 
My  figure  so  seductive 

Disgraced  by  shabby  toes. 

The  dinner  hour's  approaching,  etc. 

4- 
Of  the  pangs  of  bitter  hunger 

Already  I  feel  the  pain, 

If  I  can't  raise  some  boots 

I  must  go  home  again. 

The  dinner  hour's  approaching,  etc. 

{Faster.)  5. 

Oh  !    tell  me  what  to  do 

I'm   really   in   despair, 
How  to  go  out  to  dinner 

With  no  dress  boots  to  wear  ? 

The  dinner  hour's  approaching,  etc. 

{Spoken)  Ah  !  .  .  .  I'll  try  neighbour  Liu,  he  can't 
refuse  me  and  I  know  he  has  a  pair  of  splendid  new  satin 
boots  in  his  house.  I'll  just  rap  him  up  and  borrow  his 
respectabihty.  That  settles  the  matter  and  here  is  the 
very  place.  {Knocks)  Open  the  door !  Come  !  Open 
the  door,  I  say. 

Liu.  {Inside)  Who's  there  ?  What  do  you  want  ? 
What  do  }'ou  mean  by  waking  up  my  quiet  house  at  this 
time  of  night  ?     {Dog  barks,  Chang  knocks  again)     I'll 


BORROWING    BOOTS  229 

skin  you  alive  if  you  don't  keep  quiet.     Who  dares  to 
make  my  dog  bark  in  this  way  ? 

Chang.     It  is  I,  open  the  door.  {Exit  left.) 

CURTAIN. 


Scene  II. — Reception  Hall  in  Liu's  House. 

Liu.  {Outside)  Who  is  that  been  knocking  at  the 
door  ?  There  is  no  reason  why  I  should  be  afraid  ;  my 
conscience  is  clear  ;  but  who  can  it  be  ?  Some  fellow 
who  wouldn't  pay  his  taxes,  possibly,  they  are  bringing 
me  ;  or,  perhaps,  it's  some  friend  come  to  have  a  chat. 
{Enters  right)     Ah  !  as  the  poet  says,  {sings) 

"  Some  rare  old  friend  has  come  to  call 
By  the  moonlight  soft  and  clear, 
How  sweet  to  gossip  in  the  hall 
With  those  one  loves  so  dear  !  " 

Why  !  It's  my  dear  old  friend  Chang.  {They  embrace) 
Come  in,  and  sit  down.  {They  sit)  Boy  !  Go  to  your 
mistress  and  tell  her  this  is  one  of  our  good  old  friends 
come  to  see  us.  (Boy  going)  And  stay  !  stop  !  Go  and 
order  a  fowl  to  be  killed  and  put  the  rice  on,  and  bring 
some  wine,  (Boy  going)  but  bring  a  cup  of  tea  first. 
(Boy  exit.  To  Chang)  You  are  in  no  hurry,  I  hope, 
my  dear  friend.  W^hen  the  wine  has  been  brought  and 
the  fowl  is  cooked  you  must  come  and  take  your  ease 
in  the  reception  room  {points  to  rear  of  stage.  Boy  sets 
two  tea-cups,  and  a  plate  of  mandarin  oranges  on  teapoy 
between  Liu  and  Chang). 

Chang.  {Fidgetting)  Don't  make  all  this  fuss  over  me, 
my  dear  old  friend.     {They  rise  and  sing.) 

Chang.  You  and  I  are  like  two  brothers  !  Where's 
the  need  of  all  this  trouble  ? 

Liu.  I  feel  towards  you  as  to  a  brother  or  like  vapour 
to  a  bubble  ! 


230  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Chang.  Or  like  fish  to  rippling  streamlets  or  a  chicken 
to  its  hen-coop  ! 

Liu.  Or  those  friends  who  took  their  money  and 
between  them  did  divide  it  ! 

Chang.  Or  like  those  friends  of  former  ages  who  each 
other  loved  to  dying  ! 

Liu  and  Chang.  [Embracing]  Or  two  friends  who  meet 
each  other  after  years  of  painful  sighing  ! 

Liu.  [Speaks]  My  own  brother  !  My  dearest  brother  ! 
How  glad  I  am  to  see  you  !  Only  think,  yesterday  I 
had  warning  of  your  auspicious  visit.  In  fact,  it  was 
presaged  by  an  extraordinary  number  of  omens.  (Chang 
fidgets]  Just  sit  down  and  listen  !  [They  sit]  On  the 
side  door  there,  I  saw  a  spider  crawling  round  and  round 
and  then  hanging  down  by  a  single  thread.  Then  there 
was  a  sudden  rush  of  wind  which  blew  the  ashes  up  the 
chimney. 

Chang.     What  a  fortunate  omen  ! 

Liu.     I  must  have  been  thinking  of  you. 

Chang.     How  were  you  thinking  of  me  ? 

Liu.  I  thought  of  you  as  taking  your  dinner,  but  not 
dressed  in  fine  clothes  like  these. 

Chang.  All  the  way  coming  here  I  was  talking  to 
myself  about  you  without  ceasing. 

Liu.     How  were  you  talking  to  yourself  ? 

Chang.  I  kept  saying,  "  My  brother  Liu.  My  own 
brother  Liu  !     My  dear  brother  Liu  !  " 

Liu.  And  I  was  thinking,  "  My  brother  Chang  !  My 
own  brother  Chang  !  My  dear  brother  Chang  !  " — Ah  ! 
No  wonder  I  had  such  a  fit  of  sneezing  this  morning. 

Chang.     What  sort  of  sneezing  was  it  ? 

Liu.  It  was  like  this  [sneezing]  twenty  or  thirty  times 
— But  what  is  it  procures  me  the  pleasure  of  your  visit 
to-day  ?  Is  there  anything  I  can  do  for  you  ?  If  so, 
you  know  I  am  always  at  your  service. 

Chang.  [Radiant]  I  .  .   .  want  .  .  .  raw  .  .  .  brains  ! 

Liu.  If  my  poor  brains  can  be  of  any  service — 
strike  !     Here  they  are. 


BORROWING    BOOTS  231 

Chang.     I    .    .    .    want    .    .    .    fresh    .    .    .    blood. 

Liu.  To  shed  my  blood  in  your  service  would  be  my 
greatest  joy.  Take  a  knife.  Cut  me  open.  Take  out 
my  heart  ;   cut  me  up  into  a  thousand  pieces. 

Chang.  [Delighted)  Well,  joking  apart,  old  friend, 
I'm  invited  to  dine  with  the  prefect  to-night,  and  I'm 
all  dressed,  as  you  see,  but  I  haven't  got  any  boots. 

Liu.     How  terribly  you  shock  me  ! 

Chang.  So,  knowing  that  you,  dear  brother,  had  a  pair 
of  new  dress  boots,  I  came  to  borrow  them  so  as  to  look 
respectable. 

Liu.  [Jumping  up)  You  terrify  me  !  I'm  all  in  a 
tremble.  You  had  better  take  back  that  last  speech 
of  yours  about  borrowing  my  boots  or  there  will  be 
an  end  to  our  friendship.  Why !  you  stand  there 
with  your  brazen  face  no  better  than  a  common  high- 
wayman !  Your  ugly  head  is  the  very  image  of  the  thief 
who  was  executed  the  other  day.  You  put  me  in  such 
a  rage  I  can't  control  myself. 

Chang.  For  twenty  years  we  have  been  as  brothers, 
and  now  for  the  sake  of  a  miserable  pair  of  boots  you 
behave  in  this  way — you  appear  to  me  to  be  truly  wanting 
in  common  sense. 

Liu.  Oh  yes  !  Crush  me  with  that  tongue  of  yours — 
but  stay  !  Have  you  any  idea  what  those  boots  cost  me  ? 
Do  you  know  that  I  invited  shoemakers  from  every  pro- 
vince in  the  empire  to  compete  for  their  manufacture  ? 
Not  to  mention  their  wages  just  think  of  their  travelling 
expenses.  [Aside)  The  dinner  hour  must  have  passed 
ere  this. 

Chang.  [Aside)  I  shall  never  get  to  dinner.  [Aloud) 
What  !  all  this  crowd  of  shoemakers  for  one  pair  of  boots  ! 
I  don't  believe  a  word  of  it. 

Liu.  What  !  You  don't  believe  it ;  just  listen  then 
while  I  reckon  them  up.     [Sings) 

From  Tung-chow  near  Peking  there  came  one  shoemaker 
named  Wang 


232  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

From  Chu-chow  near  Nanking  there  came  one  shoemaker 

named  Tang 
From  Soo-chow  in  Kiang-su  there  came  one  shoemaker 

named  Pang 
From  Hang-chow  in  Che-kiang  there  came  one  shoemaker 

named  Chang 
From  Han-kow  in  Hu-kwang  there  came  one  shoemaker 

named  Kung 
From   Hu-kow  in  Kiang-si  there  came  one  shoemaker 

named  Tung 
From  Teng-chow  in  Shan-tung  there  came  one  shoemaker 

named  Lung 
From   Ju-chow  in   Ho-nan  there   came   one  shoemaker 

named  Sung 
From  Chang-chow  in  Fu-kien  there  came  one  shoemaker 

named  Fung 
From  Hong-kew  near  Shanghai.  .  .  . 

Chang.  {Interrupting)  Enough !  Enough !  I  believe 
all  you  say.  .  .  . 

Liu.  {Sings,  Bis)  Well,  all  these  shoemakers  did 
come  to  make  these  boots  for  me.  {Chants)  {chord)  While 
I  here  at  home  {chord)  prepared  a  black  pig  {chord)  without 
one  white  hair  {chord)  and  prepared  a  great  feast  {chord) 
and  when  all  was  ready  {chord)  poured  out  a  libation  {chord) 
made  offering  to  the  spirits  {chord  :  kneels)  kneeling  on 
my  knees.  .  .  . 

Chang.  Get  up  !  Get  up  !  Boots  or  no  boots,  you 
mustn't  kneel  to  me. 

Liu.  I  kneel  to  you  !  I  was  reverently  presenting 
the  wine  to  the  shoemakers. 

Chang.  No  offence  !  No  offence  !  You  were  reverently 
presenting  wine  to  the  shoemakers.  {Aside)  Confound 
the  fellow  ! 

Liu.  Well  !  As  I  told  you  before,  I  do  not  mind 
lending  you  the  boots,  but  you  must  bear  in  mind  that 
ever  since  they  were  made  I  have  not  worn  them  a  single 
day.     I  wrapped  them  up  carefully  in  oiled  paper  and 


BORROWING    BOOTS  233 

hung  them  high  up  in  the  Hall  of  Audience  and  every  day 
I  go  to  look  at  them. 

Chang.     I  fear  then  you  won't  allow  them  to  be  worn. 

Liu.  By  no  means  :  I  am  quite  willing  to  lend  them 
to  persons  of  my  own  rank,  but  there  are  a  lot  of  low 
fellows,  insupportable  wretches,  who  think  nothing  of 
borrowing  a  pair  of  boots.  Now,  if  you  really  want  them, 
sacrifice  one  of  your  fingers,  take  them  and  be  off. 

Chang.  For  twenty  years  we  have  been  as  brothers  ! 
Ah  !     I  see,  you  are  determined  not  to  lend  them. 

Liu.  Oh,  no  !  I  have  no  objection  to  lend  them  to 
you,  my  brother, — but  there  is  much  to  be  done  first. 

Chang.  Now  don't  waste  time  like  this  !  Well,  what 
is  there  to  be  done  ? 

Liu.  I  must  first  sacrifice  to  the  boots,  before  that  they 
cannot  be  worn. 

Chang.  But  suppose,-  brother,  you  omit  the  sacrifice 
until  I  come  back  ? 

Liu.  Why  then,  if  you  were  to  put  them  on  without 
making  proper  sacrifice,  your  head  would  instantly  begin 
to  ache,  a  violent  fever  would  set  in,  and  in  a  short  time 
you  would  be  all  but  dead. 

Chang.     What  sort  of  sacrifice  must  I  make  ? 

Liu.  Oh  !  Nothing  to  speak  of  !  Quite  within  your 
means.     (Sings) 

One  black  pig  and  one  white  goat 
One  grey  goose  and  one  fat  hen 
One  paper  horse  and  one  cask  wine 
Incense,  flowers  and  candles  fine. 

Chang.     (Sings) 

That  will  do  !    that  will  do  ! 
Pray  now  do  let  me  be  going  : 
I  beseech  you  !     I   beseech  you  ! 
Make  an  end  of  all  this  bowing 
I  entreat  you  !     I  entreat  you. 

Liu.  He  must  win  the  boots  by  kneeling  !  Such  a 
rogue  to  come  here  stealing. 


234  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Chang.  I  must  get  the  boots  by  kneeling !  Such 
confounded  double  deahng. 

Liu.     Sure  my  brain  is  all  a-reeling. 

Chang.     Hasn't  got  one  bit  of  feeling. 
Let  me  go  ! 

Lin.     No!     No!     No! 

Four  violins  and  two  guitars, 

'Twill  cost  but  dollars  twenty. 

Chang.     That  will  do  !     That  will  do  ! 

If  I  had  but  dollars  twenty, 
I  would  buy  them,  I  would  buy  them, 
Silk  and  satin  boots  in  plenty 

I  would  buy  them,  I  would  buy  them. 
Etc.     [Duet   and   finale   repeated.) 

Liu.  He  must  win  the  boots  by  kneeling  !  Such  a 
rogue  to  come  here  stealing. 

Chang.     Sure  my  brain  is  all  a-reeling. 
I'll  dissemble  !     I'll  dissemble  I 
I'll  dissemble  !     I'll  dissemble  ! 
Let  him  tremble  ! 
Let  me  go  ! 

Liu.     No  !  no  !  no  ! 

Liu.  Well ;  as  it  is  you,  good  brother,  you  may  dis- 
pense with  part  of  the  sacrifice.  You  need  only  buy  the 
pig  and  the  fowl  and  the  fish  and  a  few  cups  of  wine,  and 
then  if  you  engage  a  priest  to  recite  the  prayers,  that 
will  do. 

Chang.  Even  that  is  more  than  I  can  manage,  dear 
brother. 

Liu.  Is  that  really  too  much  for  you  !  Well  then, 
we'll  be  satisfied  with  a  stick  of  pure  incense  and  a  bowl  of 
clear  water. 

Enter  Boy  with  basin  and  joss-stick. 

Chang.     That  I  can  do  ;    do  oblige  me  and  get  them 


BORROWING    BOOTS  235 

ready  without  delay.     (Boy  places  joss-stick  and  water  on 
the  table.     Chang  kotows.) 

Lhi.  Quite  right,  as  it  is  written  in  the  Book  of  Rites. 
You  may  go  now. 

Chang.     Go  !    where  ? 

Liii.     To  call  in  the  priest  to  recite  the  prayers. 

Chang.  Why  that  would  cost  as  much  as  a  dozen 
pair  of  boots.  I  would  much  rather  put  myself 
under  an  obligation  to  you  and  let  you  recite  the 
prayers. 

Liu.  Well  then,  to  oblige  you,  my  honoured  brother, 
I  will  recite  the  prayers.  But  first,  I  must  take  a  httle 
refreshment.     {Begins  peeling  an  orange.) 

Chang.     Make  haste,  brother  Liu. 

Liu.     {Eats  and  sings  :    kneels  and  kotows.) 
O — mi — to  fo — etc.,   etc. 

Chang.     Good  !     Good  !     I  trust  you've  finished. 

Liu.  Boy  !  Go  to  your  mistress  and  ask  her  to  give 
you  my  new  satin  boots  that  are  in  the  gilt  wardrobe 
and  bring  them  to  me.  Carry  them  very  carefully,  very 
gently,  take  care  not  to  knock  them  against  anything  as 
you  walk  along,  hold  them  on  top  of  your  head  and  bring 
them   to  me, — so. 

Boy  enters  with  the  boots  on  his  head  and  throws 
them  on  the  floor. 

You  villain  !  I  told  you  to  handle  them  gently,  and 
you  throw  them  down  like  that  !     How  dare  you  ? 

Boy.  Why  do  you  scold  me  ?  I  handled  them  with 
the  greatest  care.  How  should  I  dare  injure  my  master's 
boots  ?  \\'hy,  I  carried  them  as  though  they  were  eggs. 
How  can  you  accuse  me  of  carelessness  ? 

Liu.  Take  care.  They  recognise  strangers  and  know 
whether  people  are  accustomed  to  wear  boots  or  not. 

Chang.  They  don't  appear  to  be  possessed.  At  least 
I  see  no  signs  of  spirits  about  them  :  nothing  except  this 
hole  here. 


236  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Liu.  A  hole  in  my  boots  !  They  were  perfectly  new 
when  I  put  them  away.  The  rats  must  have  been  at 
them.  {Takes  the  hoots  frotn  Chang  fondly)  Ah !  my 
boots  !  my  poor  boots  !  You  have  got  to  go  a  long 
journey,  and  in  what  company?  {To  Chang)  Come! 
Kotow  ! 

Chang.     What  !     Kotow  to  a  pair  of  boots  ? 

Liu.  I  should  like  to  know  how  you're  going  to  sacrifice 
without  kotowing. 

Chang.  Well  then,  here  goes  and  have  done  with  it. 
{Kneels,  bowing  his  forehead  to  the  ground.) 

Liu.  {Intones  like  a  High  Priest)  In  all  humility  the 
offerer  of  the  sacrifice  enters  and  stands  with  bent  body, 
humbly,  humbly,  this  very  year,  this  very  month,  this 
very  day,  this  very  hour.     (Chang  appears  to  sacrifice.) 

Chang.     Yes,  I,  Chang — 

Liu.  {Intones)  Having  carefully  provided  the  necessary 
incense  and  candles,  pure  and  clean,  he  reverently  sacri- 
fices to  the  great  God  of  leather,  to  the  mighty  commander 
of  ox-hides,  to  the  illustrious  general  of  sheepskins,  to  the 
holy  patron  of  dogskins.  {Chang  appears  to  sacrifice  to  all 
these  exalted  spirits)  It  is  his  wish  to  borrow  the  boots, 
promising  to  preserve  them  free  from  injury.  And  if  he 
does  injure  them  in  any  way  he  shall  be  cut  into  ten 
thousand  pieces  and  die  a  lingering  death.  {To  Chang) 
Alas  !  poor  brother,  approach  and  accept  the  sacrifice. 
(Chang  takes  up  the  hoots  and  begins  to  go)  Where  are  you 
going  to  ? 

Chang.  The  prayers  and  sacrifice  are  over,  now  I'm 
going. 

Liu.  Not  so  fast !  For  you  to  put  on  the  boots  and 
strain  them  and  spoil  them,  before  ever  I've  had  them  on 
myself ;   it  isn't  right. 

Chang.     Why  not  ?     Are  they  the  skin  of  a  dragon  ? 

Liu.  Although  they  are  not  literally  made  of  dragons' 
skins,  the  materials  come  from  a  great  distance. 

Chang.     Eh  !     What  are  they  made  of  then  ? 

Liu.     {Sings)  Well,  listen,  and  I'll  tell  you.    {Both  sit.) 


Uchnnhiccd  fnnii  flic  nriMtiuil  ilniicini^  by  the  "  Dciily  C,iat>hi^.' 

Prostration  before  the  boots. 


To  face  />.  236. 


BORROWING    BOOTS  237 

I. 

The  martin's  skin  from  Liao-tung  came, 

The  thread  from  Shen-si's  plains, 
Then  on  to  Soo-chow  were  they  sent, 

In  truth  we  spared  no  pains  ; 
For  there  a  famous  cobbler  dwelt 

Whose  name  was  Kin-ah-loots. 
He  bound  the  whole  with  soles  of  felt, 

A  virgin  pair  of  boots. 

Oh  !     What  a  pair  of  boots. 
Oh  !     What  a  pair  of  boots. 
Old  and  young  their  praise  have  sung, 
What  lovely  boots  ! 

Chang.     Enough  !     Enough ! 

Liu.     (Sings)  2. 

The  richest  drugs  were  used  to  dye. 

The  deep  jet  black  you  see. 
The  hemp  and  silk  are  choicest  kinds. 

Selected  from  Kiang-si. 
The  binding  round  the  edge,  behold, 

From  Yunnan's  mountains  came, 
And  Cochin  China's  burnished  gold 

Went  to  complete  their  fame. 

Oh  !     What  a  pair  of  boots  !    etc.,  etc. 
{Encore  verse)  3. 

Such  boots  as  these  were  never  seen 

In  all  the  world  before. 
Hark  !     How  their  hollow  sides  resound 

The  mighty  ocean's  roar. 
Their  shining  tops  like  diamonds  gleam. 

Their  sides  like  sunshine  flash, 
To  wear  such  jewels  who  would  dream  ! 

(Chang  attempts  to  take  the  boots,  Liu  snatches  them  hack.) 
Take  care  now  !     Don't  be  rash  ! 


238  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Chang.  Enough  !  Enough  !  there  will  be  no  difficulty, 
I  will  return  them  to-morrow.  {Goes  away,  Liu  holds  him 
back)  Let  me  go ;  I  shall  be  late  for  dinner  as  it  is.  {Both 
hold  boots.) 

Liu.  It  is  quite  early — I  want  to  ask  you  one  question 
before  you  go.  You  are  the  man  who  has  borrowed  my 
boots,  but  who  is  the  man  who  is  going  to  wear  them  ? 

Chang.     Why  /,  of  course  !     Who  else  should  it  be  ? 

Liu.  What  do  you  mean  ?  It  is  too  ridiculous. 
A  man  like  you  wear  my  boots  ! 

Chang.  I  not  wear  them  !  Whom  then  would  you 
have  wear  them  ? 

Liu.  Only  a  great  poet  or  learned  scholar  should  wear 
them.  (Chang  turns  to  go)  Stay !  I  have  not  done 
speaking  to  you  and  you  turn  to  go  away  ! 

Chang.  My  good  brother,  pray  do  let  me  go  and  get 
something  to  eat. 

Liu.  It  is  quite  early  yet ;  think  how  many  guests 
there  will  be.  Well !  take  the  boots  and  wear  them  ! 
{Enter  Boy)  Here,  boy,  run  and  get  the  boot  code  ! 

Boy.  What  is  a  boot  code  ?  I  don't  know  what 
master  mean  by  boot  code. 

Liu.  What  do  you  mean,  you  rascal  ?  Go  and  get  it 
directly.  (Boy  appears  with  a  pile  of  Chinese  volumes 
which  he  holds  in  his  hands)  Now  give  it  to  Mr,  Chang  to 
take  with  him. 

Chang.     Boot  code  !     Who  ever  heard  of  a  boot  code  ? 

Liu.  Yes — a  Code  of  Laws  for  the  management  and 
wearing  of  the  boots — My  .  .  .  dear  .  .  .  old  friend,  the 
rules  of  etiquette  are  often  sadly  neglected  in  the  matter 
of  boots,  so  I  had  this  code  drawn  up  to  guide  me  whenever 
I  should  have  them  on.     {Sings) 

Your  worthless  brother  so  loved  these  boots 
That  he  made  them  a  special  code, 

And  whoever  would  wear  them  must  hold  it 
in  hand 
While  walking  along  the  road. 


BORROWING    BOOTS  239 

Chang.     Respectable  brother,  I  needs  must  say 
'Tis  a  most  astonishing  mode 
For  a  man  to  carry  by  night  and  by  day 
In  his  hands  such  a  wearying  load. 

Liu  Respectable  brother,  I  needs  must  pray 

""^  Thatyou'U    j^^-^'y^I^g  [the  code 

Chang.  ^  (spare  me  at  least] 

T-       (though  vou  must      1  u  u  -^  i.       •  u^. 
For  ^,  1       1,     ,, 'r  hold  it  by  night 

(the  man  who  should]  ■^      ° 

and  by  day 

{'Tis  nothing  at  all  of  a        ]    ,      , 
Would  stagger  beneath  the  J 

Chang.     (Spoken)  Well,  tell  me,  what  does  the  code 
enjoin  ?    and  be  quick  about  it. 
Liu.     (Sings) 

The  code  enjoins  whoe'er  should  damage 
Soles,  top,  or  the  satin  side 

He  must  bear  the  burden  of  it 
And   the   penalty   abide. 

Chang.     (Spoken)  And  suppose  I  injure  the  tops  what 
would  be  the  punishment  ? 

Liu.     (Sings)        The  code  enjoins  if  tops  you  injure. 

Badly  beaten  you  shall  be. 
Chang.     (Spoken)  And  if  I  tear  the  sides  ? 
Liu.     (Sings)        The  code  most  strict  in  that  particular 

Dooms  your  death  in  agony. 
Chang.     (Spoken)  And  if  I  break  the  stitching  ? 
Liu.     (Sings)        The  code  enjoins  if  stitching  broken 

Thrice  ten  lashes  you  receive. 
Chang.     (Spoken)  And  if  I  wear  out  the  soles  ? 
Liu.     (Sings)        Upon  the  soles  of  your  own  feet,  sir. 

Thirty  thousand  blows  we  give. 
Chang.     (Spoken)  And  for  slight  offences  ? 
Liu.     (Sings)        The  code  enjoins  for  slight  offences 

You  in  banishment  shall  sigh. 
Chang.     (Spoken)  And  for  heavy  offences  ? 


240  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Liu.     (Sings)         Sliced  into  ten  thousand  atoms 

A  lingering  death  by  torture  die, 
Chang.     (Spoken)  Spare  me  your  wretched  code  and 
let  me  go. 

Liu       Respectable  brother,  I  needs  must  pray 

""f  That  you'll     | '^^^^ry  along  U^  ^^^ 

Chang  [spare  me  at  least  J 

For  K ,      ^     ^  ,       ,      ,  J  ;■  hold  it  by  night  and 
[the  man  who  should)  -^      ° 

by  day 

Jit's  nothing  at  all  of  a  1  i     rl 

[Would  stagger   beneath  the    J 

(Chang  drops  the  boots  and  moves  towards 
the  door.) 


Liu.     Where  are  you  going,  good  brother  ? 

Chang.  I'm  going  home  ;  by  this  time  the  dinner  must 
be  nearly  over. 

Liu.  It  is  still  early,  excellent  brother.  I  must  offend 
you  with  one  more  question.  Have  you  ever  had  on  a 
pair  of  black  satin  boots  before,  since  you  were  bom  ? 

Chang.  Nonsense,  brother.  Do  you  suppose  a  man  in 
my  position  has  never  worn  boots  ? 

Liu.  Be  so  kind  then  as  to  tell  me  how  you  would  put 
them  on. 

Chang.  Why  just  put  my  foot  in  and  let  it  down  with 
a  push,  so. 

Liu.  (Agitated)  With  that  one  push  all  would  be  done 
for  ;  let  me  implore  you  to  take  time  and  to  put  your 
foot  in  gently,  gently — thus — gently. 

Chang.  Yes,  yes,  I  know.  I'll  take  care  of  them. 
(Begins  to  go.) 

Liu.  Stay,  stay.  (Buttonholing  him)  See,  now !  (laugh- 
ing) the  fact  of  your  borrowing  my  boots  admits  of  more 
than  one  splendid  metaphor.  (Sings,  pausing  to  reflect 
between  each  line.) 


BORROWING    BOOTS  241 

It   reminds   me   of   the   swineherd   whom   the   Princess 

To-fu  wedded, 
Or  the  gay  and  fragrant  rose-bush  in  the  foulest  soil 

embedded, 
Or  a  mouldering  ruin  decked  with  gaudy  weeds  and 

creepers  flowering, 
Or  a  mighty  conflagration  whence  a  phoenix  rises  towering, 
Or   the    noble    eagle   soaring    o'er  a  heap  of   filth  and 

rubbish  : 
Such   a   parallel   exists    in    lending    boots    for    you    to 

flourish. 

Chang.     Just  so,  just  so. 

Liu.  {To  Chang,  going)  One  word  more,  my  honoured 
brother,  you  are  going  to  dine  now  with  a  very  rich  family  ; 
if  you  take  too  much  wine  you  will  be  sent  home  in  a 
carriage  or  on  horseback.  Now  with  one  rub  my  boots 
will  be  ruined. 

Chang.     Well,  then,  what  am  I  to  do  ? 

Liu.  I'll  tell  you  what  to  do.  If  you  ride  you  must 
spread  a  cushion  over  the  horse's  back.  If  you  come 
home  in  a  carriage  be  sure  and  see  that  there's  a  carpet  on 
the  floor.  If  you  turn  to  the  right  or  to  the  left,  move 
gently  ;  mind  you  don't  shake  your  head  or  body,  or 
walk  with  a  shuffling  gait.  When  the  dinner  is  over  don't 
be  the  last  to  go.  We  have  been  friends  all  our  lifetime, 
very  different  to  the  new-bom  friendships  of  a  day. 
(Chang  takes  up  the  boots  quickly)  Slowly,  slowly,  brother, 
and  remember  to  be  sure  and  return  them  quickly.  If 
I  had  thought  it  possible  you  would  delay,  I  should  not 
have  lent  them  to  you  so  readily.  {Exit.) 

Chang.     {Sings) 

Did  ever  one  see  such  a  man  ? 

I've  been  trying  as  hard  as  I  can 
In  anger  and  sorrow 
These  boots  for  to  borrow 

Ere  away  from  his  presence  I  ran. 


242  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

I  have  wasted  near  half  of  the  night 
I'm  indeed  in  a  pitiful  phght 
The  stingy  old  beggar 
I  feared  he  would  never 
Betake  himself  out  of  my  sight. 


I  have  got  his  old  boots  here  at  last 

Such  trouble  I   took  to  obtain 
And  now  all  this  bother  is  past 

I'll  quickly  forget  all  my  pain. 

Who'd  have  thought  I'd  ha'  been  such  a  time 
Kept  back  by  his  stupid  old  talk  ! 

But  I'D  drown  all  my  grief  in  a  bumper  of  wine 
It  is  but  a  very  short  walk. 

And  thus  can  swagger  I 
With  a  look  of  my  eye 

Decked  out  in  finery 

Gay  like  a  pinery 

Bright  like  a  vinery 

Bursting   with   myster}'  ; 

Since  my  nativity 

No  trace  of  gravity 

But  always  suavity. 

I  have  answers  oracular, 
Manners   spectacular, 
Put  on  the  tragical, 
Play  with  the  magical, 
Don  well  the  comical 
Wiseacres   some   I   call 
And  if  I  want  it,  I  worm  out  a  favour  by  manners 
impossible. 

(N.B.   repeat  first  verse,   using  last  for  encore.) 


BORROWING    BOOTS  243 

Did  ever  one  see  such  a  man  ? 
I've  been  trying  as  hard  as  I  can 

In  anger  and  sorrow 

These  boots  for  to  borrow 
Ere  away  from  his  presence  I  ran. 

Oh  !  .  .  .  Did  ever  one  see  such  a  man  ? 
I'm  ready  to  plot  and  to  plan 
To-day   or   to-morrow. 
To  steal  or  to  borrow 
Such  a  clever  young  swell  as  I  am. 

{Skips  off.) 
CURTAIN. 


Scene  III. — A  Rough  Road  in  another  Part  of  the  Town, 
A  Wall  with  House  in  Rear. 

Chang.  Why  !  WTiat's  this  ?  The  door  is  shut  and 
there  are  no  lights.  It  does  not  look  as  if  there  were  any 
guests  here,  but  I  will  call  out  and  see  if  any  one  will  open 
the  door.     Ho,  there  !     {Knocks  :  Dog  barks.) 

Voice.     {Within,  behind  wall)  Who  is  there  ? 

Chang.     It  is  I,  Mr.  Chang,  come  to  dinner. 

Voice.     The  guests  have  all  gone, 

Chang.  You  don't  mean  to  say  that,  my  good  brother, 
and  that  I've  come  all  this  way  for  nothing.  Can't  you 
get  me  something  to  eat  and  a  cup  of  hot  wine  ?  Do, 
there  is  a  good  brother. 

Voice.  There  is  nothing  left.  The  guests  have  eaten 
everything  up. 

Chang.     Is  there  no  wine  ? 

Voice.  The  wine  has  all  been  drunk  and  the  wine  cups 
are  turned  upside  down. 

Chang.     Is  there  any  tea  ? 

Voice.     The  kitchen  fire  is  out, 

Chang.  I  am  so  thirsty.  Couldn't  you  get  me  a  cup 
of  cold  water  ? 


244  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Voice.  There  is  some  dirty  water  at  the  bottom  of  the 
water  jars  if  you  care  to  drink  that. 

Chang.     Here's  a  pretty  go  !     What  am  I  to  do  ? 
Not  a  scrap  to  eat ! 
Sent  by  that  old  scold,  out  into  the  cold, 
To  shiver  in  the  street  ! 

Head.     {Appearing  over  wall) 

Get  along,  you  rogue.  No  more  of  your  brogue  ! 

Pretty  fellow  you, 
Coming  here  so  late.     Making  others  wait. 
Go  along  now,   do  ! 

(Chang  and  Head  repeat  above  together.) 

Chang  Here's   a   pretty   go.  Here's  a  pretty  go. 

and       What  am  I  to  do  ?  What  is  he  to  do  ? 
Head         Not  a  scrap  to  eat !        Not  a  scrap  to  eat ! 

Sent  by  that  old  scold  Useless  more  to  scold  ; 

Out  into  the  cold  Stay  out  in  the  cold 
{Repeat    To  shiver  in  the  street      Shiver  in  the  street. 
ensemble)      Oh  ..0..0..0!  Go.,o..o..o! 

Chang.  Oh  !  These  cursed  boots  !  Hang  his  rotten  boots! 
Starving  I  am  : 
That  old  villain  Liu  !        I  knew  it  was  a  do  ! 
Hideous  old  man  !    {Shakes  his  fist.) 

Head.     What  about  your  boots?  Hang  your  rotten  boots. 
Take   yourself   away. 
If  you  don't  quickly  go  {dog  barks)  the  dog  will 
let  you  know 
You  cannot  stay  ! 

Chang  and  Head.     {Ensemble)  Here's  a  pretty  go,  etc. 

Chang.  {Soliloquises)  If  I  hadn't  borrowed  this  absurd 
pair  of  boots,  I  should  not  have  brought  myself  to  this 
position.  I'm  literally  starving.  I  have  barely  strength 
to  stand  :  I  must  lie  down — and  make  a  pillow  of  these 
detestable  boots.     Perhaps,  after  I  have  had  a  nap,  I 


BORROWING    BOOTS  245 

shall  be  able  to  manage  to  walk  back.    {Lies  down,  folding 
up    boots   for   pillow.) 

(Sings)  I. 

Time  was  when  I  ne'er  felt  a  pang  of  sorrow 

Time  was  when  I  was  young  and  innocent 

Time  was  when  I  no  thought  had  for  the  morrow 

Gay  as  a  lark  I  followed  every  bent ! 

Time  was  when  I  had  troops  of  friends  in  plenty, 

Well-filled  my  purse  and  gallant  was  my  train  ; 

Pockets  full  of  money  :    years  just  twenty  : 

Ah  me  !     Ah  me  !     Those  times  will  ne'er  come  back 

again  ! 
Had  I  no  dinner — all  my  friends  assembled 
Longed  for  the  joy — that  I  with  them  would  dine  : 
Did  I  want  money — all  their  pockets  opened, 
And  when  I  hungered — proffered  food  and  wine  ! 

2. 

But  now  a  homeless  waif  of  mocking  fortune. 
Tired  out,  with  quaking  limbs  and  aching  bones ; 
Empty  my  pockets  :    ruin  for  my  portion, 
Footsore  !   hungry  !     I  slumber  on  the  cruel  stones  ! 
Footsore  and  hungry  !     Ah  me  !     I  slumber  on  the  cruel 

stones  ! 
{Lies  down  and  sleeps.) 

Boy.  {From  without)  This  way,  master.  You  must 
walk  very  carefully  here.  {Appears  holding  lantern) 
Why  do  you  go  so  fast  ? 

Liu.  Get  on,  boy  !  That  Chang  who  borrowed  my 
boots  has  never  yet  brought  them  back.  I  beheve  he  is 
a  rogue. 

Boy.     A  tip  top,  number  one  rogue  ! 

Liu.  We  must  take  the  lantern  and  go  out  and  look 
for  him.  Now,  I  ask,  if  a  man  borrows  your  boots  and 
never  brings  them  back,  who  is  to  blame  ?  He  for  running 
off  with  them  or  you  for  being  such  a  fool  as  to  lend 
them  ?     A  man  with  no  conscience  reminds  me  of  a  wheel 


246  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

without  an  axle. — How  is  either  to  get  on  ?  What  is  to 
be  done  with  a  man  who  proves  so  false  ?  What  use  is 
such  a  man  in  the  world  ?  Ah  !  what  a  false  man  ! — I 
didn't  for  a  moment  think  he  would  prove  false  to  a  man 
like  myself,  but  now  I  know  he  is  unfit  to  be  my  friend. 
Words  can't  express  what  I  feel !  What  words  can  describe 
my  trials  ?  I  was  just  going  to  sleep  when  there  comes  a 
thundering  rap  at  my  door  and  when  I  call  out  "  Who's 
there  ?  "  I  find  it  is  that  fellow  Chang  come  to  borrow  my 
boots.  ( Very  slowly)  Now  I  had  positively  made  up  my  mind 
that  I  would  not  lend  them,  but  I  am  such  a  good-natured 
old  fool  that  I  never  can  say  No.  My  heart  is  as  soft  as 
wax  and  with  a  little  flattery  that  fellow  Chang  got  round 
me  and  before  I  knew  where  I  was,  the  boots  were  gone. 
— Yes,  gone — wormed  out  of  me  by  that  plausible  scoun- 
drel Chang — My  wife  too, — not  that  I  mind  her, — she  lost 
her  temper  over  the  business,  and  just  after  bringing  in  the 
evening  meal,  she  threw  the  rice  on  the  floor,  flung  down 
the  saucepan  and  upset  the  teapot.  I  asked  her  what  she 
meant  by  it.  "  Well,"  she  says,  "  this  is  a  pretty  business! 
You  are  too  careful  of  your  boots  to  wear  them  yourself, 
and  yet  you  lend  them  to  others."  Now,  in  truth, — not 
that  I  am  afraid  of  her,  but  because  there  is  reason  in 
what  she  says, — I  am  suffering  under  the  most  painful 
depression  of  spirits. — I  can  take  no  dinner,  I  can't  sleep, 
I  can  think  of  nothing  but  of  this  wretched  pair  of 
boots,  and  my  heart  aches  terribly. — Boy,  hold  up 
the  lantern  and  let  the  light  fall  on  my  face.  How  do 
I  look  ? 

Boy.  Ai  ya !  Old  father,  you  do  indeed  look  ill — 
white  all  over — just  hke  one  dead  man. 

Liu.  Aye !  Aye !  No  wonder  that  just  now  in 
stroking  my  beard  I  felt  my  chin  gradually  narrowed 
down  to  a  point.  Ah  !  as  my  face  loses  its  fair  propor- 
tions, the  indignation  of  my  heart  is  increased  ! 

{They  wander  up  and  down  the  stage,  Boy  carrving  the 
lantern  to  light  the  road.     Liu  sings) 


BORROWING    BOOTS  247 

Forced  thus  to  wander  no  one  I  meet 

Tom  from  my  slumber  sadly  I  roam 

Vainly  that  vagabond  everywhere  I  seek 

North,  South,  East  and  West,  far  from  my  home  ! 
Oh  !    my  poor  boots  What  do  you  suffer 

Worn  by  that    villain    heartless  and  wild, 
_, .     C  Maybe  you're  smarting  trodden  by  that  duffer, 
[  Maybe  you're  blushing  Your  fair  face  all  soiled. 

Should  I  recover  my  beloved  boots 

A  rich  votive  tablet  To  Heaven  will  I  raise 

Words  can't  express  the  misery  I  suffer 

No  hope  is  mine  in  peace  to  end  my  days ! 

Why  did  I  lend  ye  ?  Fool  for  my  pains 

Thus  to  abandon  the  jewel  of  my  eye 

P .      I  Who  now  can  save  me  ?  Ah,  if  it  rains, 
I  My  boots  will  be  wetted  and  I  shall  die  ! 

Here  boy  !  the  lantern  !  What  on  earth  are  you  doing 
with  the  lantern  ?  You  are  keeping  it  all  to  yourself. 
Why  don't  you  light  me,  you  rogue  ?  The  lantern  is  to 
light  my  path,  not  yours. 

Boy.  I  am  awfully  sorry  !  But  why  do  you  walk  so 
fast  ?  How  do  you  expect  me  to  keep  up  with  you  ? 
See  !  the  road  is  up  and  under  repair.  Gently !  Gently  ! 
Slowly  !  Slowly  !  Can't  you  see  they're  mending  the 
road  ? 

Liu.  Mending  the  road  !  What  do  you  mean,  you 
scoundrel  ?  You  ought  to  die  !  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me 
we  are  on  a  road  that's  being  mended  ?  Father  in 
Heaven  !     And  would  my  brother  Chang  take  this  road  ? 

Boy.     Yes,  master  !     He  must  come  this  road. 

Liu.  Come  this  road  ?  Could  my  boots  ever  walk 
over  this  road  ?  Boy  !  Run  back  home  and  whoever 
you  find  sleeping,  great  or  small,  wake  them  up  with  a 
good  beating  :  and  tell  them  to  bring  spades  and  shovels 
and  hoes  and  rakes  and  pickaxes, — and  come  and  mend 
this  road  and  make  it  fit  to  walk  on. 


248  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Boy.  It's  all  very  fine  to  tell  me  to  go  and  find  men 
with  pickaxes  and  shovels  to  come  and  repair  this  road. 
But  suppose  Mr.  Chang  doesn't  go  home  by  this  road  ; 
suppose  he  takes  another  road,  how  then  ?  I  think  the 
best  thing  we  can  do  is  to  go  on  and  look  for  Mr.  Chang. 

Liu.  How  can  I  walk  on  and  find  him  when  the  road 
is  full  of  steep  and  dangerous  precipices  ?  How  can  I  go 
forward  ?  {Falls,  hat  rolls  off)  Help  !  Help  !  I've  fal- 
len down.  Oh  !  my  knees  !  they  are  bruised  to  a  jelly — 
eh  !  What's  this  ?  {feeling  stone  against  which  Chang  is 
lying). 

Boy.  This  is  a  fine  way  of  mending  a  road,  I  call  it  no 
road  at  all — a  regular  break-neck,  fall-down  place. 

Liu.  {On  the  ground)  Could  my  brother  Chang  have 
thought  of  coming  along  this  road  ?  Oh  !  My  poor 
boots  !  With  one  knock  against  such  a  stone  you  would 
be  torn  to  pieces.  Here,  boy  !  Come,  push  this  stone 
away  ! 

Boy.     Ai  ya  !     I  can't  move  it. 

Liu.  You  good-for-nothing  scoundrel.  You're  no 
better  than  a  sack  of  rice.  Come — move  it  out  of  the 
way. 

Boy.     I  can't !     Oh  my  !     My  side  aches  all  over. 

Liu.  You  young  vagabond.  Here !  Hold  the  lan- 
tern so  that  I  can  see.  {Gets  up)  Boy !  Uncle  Chang 
must  have  turned  back  and  gone  some  other  way.  Where 
can  he  have  gone  ? 

Boy.     This  is  the  right  road  for  him,  master. 

Liu.  My  boots  !  My  leather  !  My  sides  !  My  soles  ! 
Were  they  iron  boots  the  soles  would  be  worn  through  on 
a  road  like  this.  {Stumbles  against  Chang)  Why  !  What's 
this? 

Boy.     Why  this  is  Mister  Chang  sound  asleep  here  ! 

Chang.     Who  is  this  wants  to  disturb  me  ? 

Liu.  Oh  !  You  vile  drunkard  !  you  drunken  defiler 
of  good  and  innocent  boots  !  'Twas  for  this  you  borrowed 
them  !  To  go  and  get  drunk  in  !  You  vile  miscreant, 
wearing  my  boots  to  degrade  them  hke  this.       What 


BORROWING    BOOTS  249 

do  you  mean — to  go  and  get  so  drunk  and  then  wear  my 
boots  ? 

Chang.  {Waking  up)  I  wearing  your  boots  ?  What ! 
Is  the  dinner  ready  ?  Then  for  Heaven's  sake  let  me  go 
and  get  something  to  eat.  I  shall  be  too  late,  I  fear,  after 
being  detained  by  that  old  fool  Liu  and  his  endless  prattle 
— If  I'd  flowTi  all  the  way  I  shouldn't  have  been  in 
time. 

Liu.     But  my  boots  !     Where  are  my  boots  ? 

Chang.  (Rises)  Why !  Is  it  you  ?  You,  the  man 
who  made  me  too  late  and  lost  me  my  dinner.  Why  ! 
the  guests  were  all  gone  and  the  door  was  shut !  the 
lights  were  out  and  every  one  in  bed.  As  for  your  infernal 
boots,  I  haven't  even  had  them  on. 

Liu.  Not  had  them  on  !  W'hy,  what  do  you  mean  ? 
Bring  the  light  here,  boy,  and  let  me  look.  {Takes  up 
the  boots  :  Boy  lifts  up  the  lantern)  Why,  that's  true.  He's 
never  had  them  on.  Well,  that  is  good  of  you,  my  dear 
brother.  I'll  take  them  back  now  and  give  them  a  good 
cleaning.  {Goes — Chang  catches  hold  of  him — he  returns 
and  they  sing  final  duet.) 

Chang.  Next  time  I  come  to  visit  you 
You  miserly  old  drone 
You'd  better  stay  behind  the  door 
And  keep  within  your  home. 

Liu.      Next  time  you  come  and  want  my  boots 
Just  treat  them  like  your  own 
They're  hanging  up  behind  the  door 
Too  glad  with  you  to  roam  ! 

{They    repeat    the    above    verses    together.) 

Chang.  You  mean  old  cur,  you  lying  sneak 
You  wizen-faced  old  j&end 
Of  borrowing  boots  of  you,  my  dear, 
I'm  once  for  ever  weaned. 


250  GLEANINGS    FROM   CHINA 

Liu.       Now,  brother  Chang,  dear  brother  Chang, 
Thou  knowest  I  love  thee  well 
Friends  have  we  been  for  twenty  years 
Don't  let  us  break  the  spell  ! 

Chang.  Another  time  !     Another  time  ! 
Barefoot  I'll  go  to  dine. 
By  waiting  for  your  horrid  boots, 
I've  lost  both  food  and  wine  ! 

Liu.       Another  time  !     Another  time  ! 
My  boots  with  glee  I'll  lend 
All  that  I  have,  on  thee  dear  Chang, 
Most  willingly  I'd  spend  ! 

[Together) 
Chang.  I  never  shall  forget  it,  Liu, 

That  when  I  went  to  dine 
Thou  kepst  me  haggling  for  thy  boots 
And  spoilt  my  rest  and  thine  ! 

Liu.      I  love  thee,  Chang,  my  dearest  friend, 
All  that  I  have  is  thine 
Sorry  I  am,  indeed,  dear  Chang, 
Thou  wast  too  late  to  dine  ! 


THE    END. 


"PLOT  AND  COUNTERPLOT,  OR  THE 
LOVERS'  VENGEANCE" 

A  Comedy  in  Two  Acts,  written  by  Archibald  Little,  in  imitation 
of  the  Chinese  style. 

Of  the  eight  characters  enumerated  it  may  be  noted  five  never 
appear,  being  marked  absent. 

DRAMATIS    PERSON.E 

Chun-hee   ("  Joy  of  Spring  "). — ^An  Orphan,  in  love  with 
Foo-KWEi.     (Absent.) 

Chang. — A  Retired  Official :    his  Uncle  and  Guardian. 

Tung. — A  Disgraced   Official :    Cousin   of  Chang — fifth 
removed. 

Tsow. — Master  of  Junk  trading  between  Canton  and  the 
North.     {Absent.) 

Lee-foo. — Chief  of  the  Brigands  in  the  Province  of  Shan- 
tung,    (Absent.) 

HsiNG. — A  Wealthy  Merchant :    Suitor  for  the  hand  of 
Foo-KWEi.     (Absent.) 

KuNG-LEE. — Servant  to  Chang.     (Absent.) 

Foo-KWEi  ("  The  Fortunate  "). — Daughter  of  Tung. 

Sailors,  Soldiers,  Messengers,  Peasants,  etc. 

Act  I 
Interior  of  Chang's  House  in  Canton. 

Act  II 
Romantic  glen  on  the  coast  of  Shantung  in  North  China. 

251 


252  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Chang. — In  first  Act,  handsomely  but  plainly  dressed  : 
in  second  Act,  in  dirty  and  torn  calico  suit — jacket  and 
trousers — pig-tail  wound  round  head,  bare  feet  in  sandals. 

Tung. — In  first  Act,  in  poor  plain  clothes :  in  second  Act, 
in  handsome  white  silk  gown  with  red  sash,  soldier's 
straw  hat — afterwards  puts  on  official  jacket  and  exchanges 
straw  for  official  hat. 

Foo-KWEi. — In  first  Act,  blue  calico  jacket  and  trousers, 
bare  feet,  hair  loose,  tied  at  nuque  with  red  coral : 
in  second  Act,  handsomely  attired  in  embroidered  silks 
with  elaborate  head-dress. 

Sailors. — Blue  cahco  jackets  and  trousers  with  turbans. 

Soldiers. — White  calico  jackets,  trousers  hem  em- 
broidered blue  key  pattern,  red  circular  discs  on  chests  with 
name  of  regiment  in  white  Chinese  characters — wide  flat 
straw  hats. 

Peasants. — Dirty  white  calico  jackets,  trousers  and 
turbans. 

Messengers. — Blue  calico  suits,  red  sashes  and  turbans. 


PROLOGUE 

Chinese  plays  have,  as  you  know,  the  mere  skeleton  of  a 
plot.  The  piece  we  are  about  to  present  to  you  has  more 
plot  than  usual,  but  still  it  depends  principally  on  the 
dialogue  for  interest. 

The  piece  was  written  in  the  active  age  of  Chinese 
literature  that  succeeded  the  Manchu  conquest  in  the 
seventeenth  century. 

We  intended  originally  to  produce  it  in  the  Chinese 
language,  but  feared  it  might  prove  tedious,  so  have 
had  it  specially  adapted  in  the  vulgar  tongue  for  this 
performance. 

We  must  apologise  for  the  non-appearance  of  the 
principal  character,  the  hero  of  the  piece,  Chun-hee  :  he  is 
unfortunately  confined  to  his  room. 


"PLOT   AND    COUNTERPLOT"  253 

The  Master  of  the  Junk  is  also  prevented  from  coming 
on  :  owing  to  the  smallness  of  our  stage,  we  could  not  bring 
the  Junk  on  and  thus  have  been  compelled  to  abandon 
the  most  effective  scene  in  the  Play.  With  his  sailors 
occupied  on  shore,  Master  Tsovv  naturally  declined  to 
leave  his  vessel. 

Old  Mr.  HsiNG  promised  to  appear,  but  sent  an  excuse 
at  the  last  moment,  owing  to  his  age  and  infirmities. 

The  servant,  Kung-lee,  too, — we  were  disappointed  in 
the  actor  who  had  promised  to  take  this  part :  and  all 
the  threats  and  imprecations  of  his  master  fail  to  bring 
him  to  the  proof. 

We  trust  that  with  all  these  shortcomings  our  Play  may 
still  interest  you  as  a  faithful  picture  of  Chinese  life  and 
manners  at  the  present  day. 

ACT    I 

Scene. — Room,  plainly  furnished,  with  table  and  two 
chairs,  folding  screen,  R. 

Foo-kwei.  {Enter  L.  Agitated)  Well!  Here  I  am! 
If  I  don't  make  haste,  I  shall  be  too  late  to  get  home 
and  prepare  the  rice  and  tea. — Oh  !  What  an  unlucky 
girl  I  am  ! — Father,  always  complaining  of  his  loss  of 
fortune  and  poor  me  to  do  all  the  household  drudgery ! 
But  Chun-hee  loves  me,  or  life  would  be  unendurable  ; 
and  he  does  love  me,  poor  as  I  am,  and  I  do  love  him  or 
I  shouldn't  be  here,  risking  to  be  found  out  in  old  Chang's 
house,  and  disgraced  for  ever  should  he  or  my  Father 
know  it. — Poor  Chun-hee,  his  Uncle  keeps  a  watch  upon 
him  and  won't  let  him  out  of  the  house.  He  can't  come 
to  me,  so  has  begged  me  to  run  across  and  see  him  here, 
that  he  may  tell  me  of  his  plan  for  our  elopement.  Oh  ! 
How  I  tremble  !  But,  there  is  nothing  to  fear.  I  can 
get  home  by  the  back  door,  the  same  way  I  came  in  and 
nobody  will  see  me.  [Steps  heard)  Ah  !  Here  he  comes  ! 
— No  !  It  is  the  old  man.  'Tis  Chang  himself !  What 
shall  I  do  ?     Heaven  save  me  if  I  am  discovered !  Oh, 


254  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Chun-hee,  Chun-hee,  what  have  I  not  risked  for  your  sake  ! 
Quick,  or  it  will  be  too  late.  I  must  hide  here.  {Hides 
behind  screen.) 

Chang.  {Enter  R.  U.  E.)  That  obstinate  boy  !  I  can 
do  nothing  with  him. — But  he  shan't  have  his  own  way. 
I'll  let  him  see  who's  master.  I've  locked  him  up  in  his  room 
and  I  won't  let  him  out  till  he  does  what  I  tell  him.  Here 
he  is  nineteen  years  of  age  and  only  just  passed  his 
first  examination  and  now  he  wants  to  spoil  his  career 
by  marrying  that  chit  Foo-kwei,  a  girl  without  a  penny. 
It's  true,  her  reckless  old  father  was  once  my  best  friend, 
but  obstinate  as  a  mule,  and,  now  that  the  Emperor  has 
cashiered  him,  he  has  nothing  to  live  on,  one  and  all 
owing  to  his  stupid  honesty.  Three  years  magistrate 
of  this  city  and  never  feathered  his  nest  as  he  might  have 
done  and  as  any  sensible  official  would  have  done  in  his 
place.  I've  no  patience  with  the  old  fool,  and,  if  he 
comes  begging  to  me  again,  I'll  pretty  quick  send  him  to 
the  right  about.     Why  here  he  is ! — The  old  reprobate  ! 

Foo-kwei.     {From  screen)  What !    Chun-hee's  guardian  ! 

Tung.  {Enter  L.)  Good-morning,  my  dear  friend ! 
Why,  you  are  up  quite  early  !  I  hardly  expected  to  have 
the  luck  to  find  you  ! 

Chang.  DeHghted  to  see  you,  I  am  sure  !  Sit  down  ! 
{They  sit)  I  knew  some  dear  old  friend  must  be  coming, 
for  a  spider  dropped  down  from  the  ceiling  into  my  cup 
as  I  was  having  my  early  tea  : — an  infalHble  omen  ! — 
And  now,  tell  me,  dear  friend,  how  are  you  getting  on  ? 
Is  there  anything  I  can  do  for  you  ?  You'll  stop  to  dinner, 
won't  you  ? 

Tung.  No,  thanks !  But  how  are  you  yourself  ? 
You  don't  seem  quite  the  thing  this  morning  ! 

Chang.  Oh  !  I  am  so  worried  with  Chun-hee, — that 
good-for-nothing  nephew  of  mine.  What  did  his  father 
go  and  die  for  and  leave  that  young  cub  upon  my  hands. 
I  want  him  to  go  back  to  continue  his  studies,  but  the 
young  fool  must  needs  fall  in  love  and  insists  on  stopping 
on  here  ;   but  I'll  soon  hnd  means  to  bring  him  to  reason. 


"PLOT    AND    COUNTERPLOT"  255 

If  he  marries  without  my  consent,  he  will  never  get  a 
penny  of  his  money,  and  when  he  does  marry,  I'm  going 
to  choose  his  wife  for  him  ! 

Tung.  Quite  right,  my  friend  !  These  youngsters  are 
always  making  fools  of  themselves.  But,  who  may  the 
girl  be  that's  keeping  him  here  ? 

Chang.  I  don't  know,  and  I  don't  care.  He  won't 
tell  me,  and  indeed  it  is  of  no  consequence,  for  I  shall 
pack  him  off  at  once,  and  never  let  him  have  a  chance 
of  seeing  her  again,  whoever  she  is.     {They  sip  tea.) 

Foo-kwei.  {Appears  from  behind  screen,  aside)  Oh 
dear  !  What  an  unhappy  business  this  is  !  I  shall  never 
see  him  again  ! 

Tung.  Don't  worry  yourself,  though  children  are  an 
awful  nuisance.  There's  that  girl  of  mine,  Foo-kwei. 
Ever  since  her  mother  died,  I  have  had  no  peace.  I  intend 
to  marry  her  off  as  soon  as  I  can.  Old  Mr.  Hsing  will  take 
her  and  pay  me  a  good  round  sum  for  her.  In  fact,  he  is 
coming  to  see  me  this  evening  to  discuss  the  matter,  and 
I  shall  try  and  hurry  the  wedding  before  she  gets  into  more 
mischief. 

Foo-kwei.  {As  before)  Oh  dear !  Oh  dear !  What 
will  become  of  me  ? 

Chang.  I  am  delighted  to  hear  it.  When  she  is  gone, 
you  can  come  and  live  with  me.  You  know  my  house  and 
everything  that  I  have  is  always  at  your  disposal. 

Tung.    I  knew  I  could  rely  on  your  kindness,  dear  friend ! 

Chang.  Kindness  ! — The  kindness  is  on  your  side, — to 
take  compassion  on  a  lonely  old  widower  like  myself. 
But  to  what  do  I  owe  the  fortunate  circumstance  of  your 
visit  this  morning  ?  Come,  do  not  be  bashful  ! — What  is 
it  you  want  with  me  ?  Is  there  anything  I  can  do  for 
you  ? — You  know  my  house,  my  purse,  all  that  I  have  is 
as  much  yours  as  mine.     You  have  only  to  ask  ! 

Tung.  No  !  No  !  I  merely  called  to  enquire  how  you 
were,  dear  Chang — I  should  be  ashamed  to  avail  myself 
of  such  kindness — though,  of  course,  at  times,  a  little 
help  comes  very  acceptable.     {Sips  tea) 


256  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Chang.  (Aside)  The  old  villain!  I  guessed  what  he 
was  up  to.  One  would  think  he  had  the  impudence  to 
take  my  offer  seriously.     {Sips  tea.) 

Foo-kwei.  [As  before)  They'll  never  have  done  at  this 
rate  !  I  must  run  home  and  come  back  later  and  tell  Chun- 
hee  what  I  have  heard.     {Exit  across  back  of  stage,  L.) 

Tung.  Well,  to  tell  the  truth,  dear  friend,  I  came  to 
ask  you  to  lend  me  fifty  dollars  to  entertain  Mr.  Hsing 
with. 

Chang.  {Rising  impetuously,  aside)  You  brazen-faced 
impostor  !  You  know  well  enough  I  have  nothing.  {To 
Tung)     Well,  that  is  cool !     It's  money  you  want  ? 

Tung.     Surely  a  trifie,  like  this,  won't  hurt  you. 

Chang.  {Standing  up)  A  trifle  indeed  !  Did  you  come 
here  on  purpose  to  insult  me  ? 

Tung.  {Rises)  I  insult  you  !  Dear  friend,  be  calm,  and 
listen  to  me. 

Chang.  I  won't  listen  to  a  word,  so  the  sooner  you  are 
gone  the  better,  and  don't  let  me  ever  see  your  face 
again  ! 

Tung.  All  right  !  Don't  alarm  yourself !  I'm  going  ! 
I  see  you  have  made  up  your  mind  not  to  oblige  me.  But 
this  I  must  say  that  it's  base  ingratitude  on  your  part, 
neighbour  Chang,  after  all  my  great-grandfather  did  for 
yours  ! — I'm  astonished  at  you  ! 

Chang.  Don't  talk  about  my  great-grandfather  ! 
Where  would  yours  have  been  if  mine  hadn't  given  him 
his  daughter  in  marriage  ?  Why  you  yourself  would  never 
have  been  bom  ! 

Tung.  No,  and  I  wish  to  Heaven  I  never  had  been  : 
better  never  have  been  bom  than  have  one's  feelings 
shocked  in  this  way. 

Chang. — Feehngs,  indeed  !  I  should  think  a  man  who 
wants  to  dip  his  hands  into  his  neighbour's  pockets  had 
no  feelings. 

Tung.  What  language  from  a  man  who  is  my  cousin 
by  marriage  five  times  removed.  If  you  go  on  in  this  way, 
I  shall  be  driven  to  hang  myself. 


u 


J    f- 


"PLOT   AND    COUNTERPLOT"  257 

Chang.  Would  to  God  you  had  hung  yourself  long 
ago.     Coming  here  in  this  way  to  worry  me. 

Tung.  'Tis  you  are  the  worry  ! — To  treat  your  relations 
like  this  ! 

Chang.  Fine  relations  indeed  !  To  run  up  debts  which 
they  can't  pay. 

Tung.  Well,  it's  only  a  trifle  I  ask — don't  be  hard  on 
me,  Cousin  !     {Sits.) 

Chang.  {They  sit)  It  is  no  use  wasting  your  time 
attempting  impossibilities.  Why  !  You  seem  to  think 
I  am  rolling  in  wealth,  whereas  you  know  that  nothing 
but  the  strictest  economy  enables  me  to  live  as  I  do. 

Tung.  You  can't  deceive  me !  {Rises)  You're  a 
selfish  old  miser,  and  I'll  never  come  near  you  any  more. 
{Going.) 

Chang.  {Rises)  No  !  No  !  You  mustn't  go  from  me 
like  that,  dear  Cousin, — You  know  I  was  only  joking  and 
that  I  am  ready  to  make  any  sacrifice  to  oblige  you. 

Tung.  {Returning)  Ah  !  That  is  spoken  more  Uke 
my  old  friend,  Chang, — I  always  said  you  were  one  of  the 
best-natured  fellows  living. 

Chang.  And  so  I'll  prove  myself.  Come,  sit  down  and 
let  us  talk  it  over.  {They  sit  again  as  before,  Chang  R. 
Tung  L.)     Is  it  only  fifty  dollars  you  want  ? 

Tung.     That's  all. — Just  to  tide  me  over  the  new  year. 

Chang.  Well,  then,  you  shall  have  it  at  once, — I'll 
send  it  you. 

Tung.  Couldn't  you  oblige  me  with  it  now  ?  Mr. 
Hsing  is  coming  to-night. 

Chang.  Bother  Mr.  Hsing,  I  want  to  oblige  you,  what 
care  I  for  old  Hsing  ? 

Tung.  Old  Hsing  !  Names,  my  dear  Cousin  !  don't 
speak  ill  of  my  best  friend. 

Chang.  I  speak  ill  of  nobody,  but  when  you  thrust 
this  Hsing  of  yours  down  my  throat,  it  is  hard  to  keep 
one's  temper. 

Tung.    Well,  well !     Lose  your  temper  if  you  like,  but 
let  me  have  the  fifty  dollars, — I  must  be  going. 
s 


258  GLEANINGS   FROM   CHINA 

Chang.  I  have  already  told  you  I'll  send  you  the  money, 
but  the  truth  is,  I've  none  in  the  house.  In  fact,  I  shaU 
be  compelled  to  wait  till  I  get  my  rents  in. 

Tung.     Then  you  positively  won't  oblige  me  ? 

Chang.     Not  won't, — but  can't, — my  dear  friend. 

Tung.     But  you  must, — you  promised  me  ! 

Chang.  So  I  did,  most  certainly — and  I  will  keep  my 
promise,  but  at  my  own  time. 

Tung.  I  never  thought  you  would  have  been  so  ill- 
natured, 

Chang.     Who  is  ill-natured  ? 

Tung.     (Going)  Why,  you  ! 

Chang.  [Both  rise)  Be  careful  what  you  say  or  you'll 
repent  it. 

Tung.  Yes,  indeed  !  I'll  repent  ever  having  come 
here. 

Chang.     Stay,  stay  !     One  moment,  dear  Cousin  ! 

{They  return  from  L.  and  come  down  stage.     Enter  Foo- 
KWEI  L.) 

Foo-kwei.  {Aside)  Now  I  can  be  off :  No  !  They're 
stiU  at  it !  The  horrid  old  miser  !  I  must  wait  and  hide 
again.     {Hides.) 

Tung.     Well  ? 

Chang.  I  tell  you,  I'll  send  you  the  money  at  once,  I 
will  make  any  sacrifice  to  oblige  a  dear  old  friend  Uke 
you. 

Tung.  Then  you'll  let  me  have  the  money  to-day — 
You  are  indeed  my  good  old  friend,  Chang  !  I  knew  you 
would  not  leave  me  in  the  lurch. 

Chang.  Of  course  not.  You  shall  have  it  by  sundown. 
Trust  me. 

Tung.     Then    I  may  rely  on  you.     Good-bye  ! 

Chang.  {Stopping  Tung's  salute)  Don't  go  yet.  I 
have  just  ordered  a  pig  to  be  killed  in  your  honour. 
Dinner  will  be  ready  in  an  hour  or  two's  time. 

Tung.  Thanks,  thanks  ! — But  I  must  really  go.  {Aside) 
The  mean,  lying  brute ! 


"PLOT   AND   COUNTERPLOT"  259 

Chang.  If  you  must  go  then,  take  my  sedan-chair. 
The  bearers  will  be  in  directly. 

Tung.  No  !  No  !  I  can  walk.  I  should  be  ashamed 
to  give  you  more  trouble  after  all  the  kindness  you  have 
shewn  me  this  morning. 

Chang.  Well  then,  good-bye,  if  you  can't  wait.  And 
don't  forget  if  ever  you  want  help,  come  to  me ! 

Tung.  {Exeunt  L.  saluting)  No  !  No  !  I  know  the 
way.     I  really  couldn't  presume  ! 

Foo-kwei.  [Comes  forward)  Now  to  find  Chun-hee  ! — 
I  thought  they  would  never  have  done ! — So,  I'm  to 
marry  that  hideous  old  Mr.  Hsing.  Never,  if  I  drown 
myself  first !  Quick !  if  father  gets  back  and  finds  me 
gone  out,  I  shall  never  be  able  to  leave  the  house  again. 
Now  to  find  Chun-hee's  room  ! 

{Advances  to  go  off  R.  U.  E.     Steps  heard,  rushes  behind 
screen.) 

Chang.  Thank  goodness  !  He  is  off  the  premises  ! 
It  was  the  only  way  to  get  rid  of  him  without  a  scene. 
To  come  begging  to  me  with  his  stupid  old  stories.  Marry- 
ing his  daughter  to  Mr.  Hsing  indeed,  I  don't  believe  a 
word  of  it !  What  a  worry  it  is  ! — Then  there's  that 
wretched  nephew  of  mine.  He's  always  up  to  some  trick, 
but  I've  got  him  safely  under  lock  and  key  (produces  key), 
and  he  shan't  get  out  until  I  send  him  straight  off  to 
Peking.  But  how  to  get  him  there  ?  He  won't  go 
quietly  so  I  shall  have  to  use  force.  Ah  !  I  have  it ! 
I'll  have  him  kidnapped  and  carried  off  to  Tsow's  junk 
which  sails  for  the  North  to-morrow.  I'll  be  even  with 
him.  I'll  go  and  make  arrangements  at  once.  Tsow  shall 
send  his  men  here  to  carry  him  off,  and  if  he  gets  drowned 
so  much  the  better,  I  should  be  rid  of  him  once  for  all, 
and  get  his  money  into  the  bargain.  Half  measures  are 
no  use  with  a  young  fool  head  over  ears  in  love.     {Exit  L.) 

Foo-kwei.  Oh !  This  is  too  dreadful  !  How  lucky, 
though,  I  was  here  and  overheard  him  !  I  must  go  and 
teU  Chun-hee  at  once.     He's  clever  and  may  perhaps  find 


26o  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

out  some  plan  to  baffle  his  uncle's  treachery.  But  how 
am  I  to  get  to  him  ?  Impossible  to  get  hold  of  the  key  ! 
Ah,  there  is  the  verandah  window.  There's  nobody  about ! 
I'll  soon  manage  it.     {Runs  off  R.)     (Chang  enters  L.) 

Chang.  I've  sent  for  Tsow,  and  as  soon  as  he  comes  I'll 
arrange  for  that  ungrateful  boy  to  be  carried  off.  There 
is  that  old  Tung  too,  I'll  send  a  message  to  Court  and  get 
him  appointed  to  a  post  on  the  savage  frontier  and  so  rid 
myself  of  him.  {Sits)  Then  perhaps  I  shall  have  some 
peace  at  last.  What  with  that  old  fellow  constantly  beg- 
ging of  me  (and  I  can't  in  decency  be  always  refusing  him) 
and  that  pickle  of  a  boy  always  disobeying  me,  I  am 
getting  quite  ill  and  losing  my  appetite.  It  is  hard  to  be 
worried  to  death  in  this  way.  However,  I  shall  be  rid  of 
Chun-hee  directly,  and  it  won't  be  so  very  long  before  I 
get  old  Tung  out  of  the  way  also.  Why, — one  would 
think  a  rich  man  had  nothing  to  do  but  to  provide  for  his 
poor  relations.  Oh  dear  !  Oh  dear  !  I'm  getting  quite 
ill !  The  doctor  told  me  I  must  give  up  all  excitement  if 
I  wish  to  get  well,  and  here  I  am,  constantly  excited  from 
morning  to  night.  Surely  at  my  age  a  man  has  a  right  to 
be  tranquil,  and  I'm  determined  I  will  be  tranquil,  come 
what  may.  I'U  follow  the  sages  of  old,  and  make  tran- 
quillity my  goddess,  but  it's  a  terrible  strain  meanwhile. 
{Rises)  Where's  Tsow  ?  He  ought  to  have  been  here 
long  before  this  and  I've  many  directions  to  give  him, 
for  that  boy  Chun-hee  is  a  sharp  young  fellow,  and  I  shall 
never  feel  safe  until  he  is  fast  on  board  the  junk.  I 
must  go,  and  look  for  Tsow  at  once.  Oh,  my  poor  heart, 
my  poor  heart  !  This  agitation  is  killing  me  !  {Exit  L.) 
{Enter  Foo-kwei  R.) 

Foo-kwei.  I've  seen  him  and  he  has  a  capital  plan 
which  will  save  us  both, — he'll  get  his  old  miserly  uncle 
carried  off  in  his  place.  Oh  !  I  wish  I  could  let  Chun- 
hee  out.  As  it  is,  I,  poor  girl,  have  got  to  manage  the 
whole  business  and,  if  it  doesn't  succeed,  there's  an  end 
to  my  happiness.  But,  where  there's  a  will  there's  a 
way,  so  courage,  Foo-kwei,  courage  !     And  now  to  way- 


"PLOT   AND    COUNTERPLOT"  261 

lay  Tsow  and  persuade  him  to  help  us.  {Takes  out 
document)  Here's  Chun-hee's  promise  to  pay  him  ten 
thousand  silver  dollars  if  he'll  kidnap  Mr.  Chang,  and  keep 
him  on  board  a  whole  year  or  the  time  of  his  voyage 
to  the  North  and  back.  Meanwhile  we  shall  have  had 
time  to  get  married  and  escape  to  some  remote  province 
where  no  one  can  find  us.  Oh  Love  !  Love !  Give  me 
courage  to  act  and  a  soft  tongue  to  talk  over  Tsow  and 
bribe  him  to  this  daring  act.  Oh  !  How  glad  I  shall  be 
when  it  is  all  over  !  Now  to  find  Tsow  and  intercept  him 
before  he  can  see  Mr.  Chang,  [Exit  L.  U.  E.)  [Enter 
Chang  L.  long  pipe  in  hand.) 

Chang.  It's  all  right.  Tsow  will  be  here  with  his  men 
directly,  and  then,  my  young  cub,  your  business  will  be 
settled.  He's  safely  locked  up  and  I  have  only  to  give 
the  sailors  the  key  to  his  room  and  they'll  soon  make  short 
work  of  him.  [Quickly)  I  wonder  what's  keeping  Tsow 
so  long. — However,  it's  no  use  exciting  myself,  I'll  send 
him  a  note  to  hurry  him,  [writes  note)  and  I'll  sit  down 
here  quietly  and  wait  till  he  comes,  [sits  R.  and  fills  long 
bamboo  pipe)  Here  Boy !  Boy  ! !  Come  here,  you  rascal. 
Come  and  take  this  note  and  light  my  pipe.  Do  you 
hear  me  ?  Boy  !  Boy  !  !  Boy  !  !  ! — what  the  deuce  is 
the  matter  with  them  all  ?  Vile  set  of  rascals  !  I'll 
have  them  all  bambooed  [rises) — But  stay !  [Enter 
Sailors,  dissembling)  I'm  exciting  myself  again.  Kung- 
hee  !  Kung-hee  !  !  Come  here,  you  villain  !  Kung-hee  ! 
Kung-hee  !  !  Oh  !  You  rogue  !  You  shall  have  500 
strokes  if  you  die  for  it !  But  I  mustn't  excite  myself. 
Oh,  my  poor  heart !  I'll  be  calm — quite  calm — Kung- 
hee  !  Kung-hee  !  !  I  say  ! — [Turns  round  and  perceives 
Sailors,  who  rush  upon  him.) 

Foo-kwei.  [L.)  Seize  him !  Quick !  There  he  is ! 
Have  no  mercy  on  him  !  Down  with  him  !  That's 
right  !  Bind  him  fast.  ( Sailors  throw  Chang  dowrt 
and  bind  him.  Foo-kwei  takes  key  frotn  his  pocket  in 
triumph.)     Saved  !     Saved  !  ! 

CURTAIN.        END    OF   ACT   L 


262  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 


ACT    II 

Scene. — Romantic  glen  on  the  coast  of  Shantung. 

Foo-kv^ei.  [Enter  L.  leading  Shantung  terrier)  What  a 
fine  day  after  the  storm  !  Oh  !  How  I  do  enjoy  this 
beautiful  country  in  summer  time — But  what  a  gale  we 
had  yesterday — a  regular  typhoon  :  two  of  the  oaks  in  the 
avenue  blown  right  over,  and  the  ground  all  strewn  with 
branches.  How  lucky  we  were  to  have  such  a  quick  and 
prosperous  voyage !  Why,  here  comes  Father ;  quite 
another  man  since  we  left  Canton  and  came  to  this  charm- 
ing place.  Good-morning,  dear  Father — Have  you  come 
out  to  enjoy  this  lovely  day  ? 

Tung.  [Enter  L.  attended  by  two  Soldiers)  Yes,  my 
darling  and  this  is  the  first  day  I  have  had  any  leisure  to 
look  about  me  ever  since  we  arrived.  How  well  you  look 
in  your  new  dress  !  Ah !  If  Chun-hee  could  see  you  now 
he  wouldn't  know  you  again. 

Foo-kwei.  Ah  !  poor  Chun-hee  !  I  wonder  whether 
he  has  safely  arrived  in  Peking.  I  think,  father,  you  might 
have  let  him  marry  me  at  once,  as  he  wanted.  Supposing 
Mr.  Chang  should  turn  up  and  prevent  our  marriage  after 
all.  You  know  wha  tan  obstinate,  disagreeable  old  fellow 
he  is,  and  he  is  Chun-hee's  guardian  and  can  compel  him 
to  do  what  he  likes. 

Tung.  No  fear  that  he  will  cross  our  plans  now, 
although  Chun-hee  did  play  him  a  scurvy  trick  and  I 
wonder  he  could  have  ventured  on  such  a  bold  scheme. 

Foo-kwei.  Well,  father,  he  was  driven  to  it  in  order  to 
save  himself,  but  [affectionately)  you  ought  to  have  let  us 
profit  by  his  manoeuvre  at  once  and  get  married  before 
Mr.  Chang  could  get  back  again. 

Tung.  [Severely)  My  dear  girl,  you  will  not  marry 
Chun-hee  with  my  consent  against  his  uncle's  wishes. 
After  the  way  Mr.  Chang  treated  me,  I  am  not  going  to- 
put  it  in  his  power  to  say  that  I  forced  my  daughter  oa 
his  rich  ward. 


"PLOT   AND   COUNTERPLOT"  263 

Foo-kwei.  What  shall  I  do  then  ?  Am  I  never  to  see 
Chun-hee  again  ?    Unhappy  girl  that  I  am  !     {Weeps.) 

Tung.  Be  patient,  my  child.  When  Chang  finds  out 
that  his  plans  to  ruin  me  have  failed  and  that  his  drawing 
the  attention  of  the  Emperor  upon  me  has  resulted  in  my 
recall  to  office,  I  feel  sure  he  will  relent  only  too  gladly. 

Foo-kwei.  I  wish  I  were  as  sure  of  that  as  you  are, 
father.  Now  that  you  have  made  this  and  Chun-hee's 
return  to  his  studies  conditions  of  our  marriage,  I  feel  as 
if  it  would  never  come  off. 

Tung.  In  a  year  all  will  be  well.  Chun-hee  will  have 
taken  his  degree  and  be  ready  for  office,  and  then  you  can 
marry  to  the  satisfaction  of  everybody. 

Foo-kwei.  Yes.  But  how  about  Mr.  Chang  ?  He  will 
never  get  reconciled  to  Chun-hee  after  the  way  he  has  been 
treated. 

Tung.  When  he  learns  the  change  in  our  condition 
and  knows  that  I  have  been  restored  to  my  command, 
he  will  soon  get  reconciled  to  the  match  and  forgive  the 
indignity  to  which  his  nephew  has  subjected  him. 

Foo-kwei.  Ah  yes !  I  only  wish  everything  were 
settled.  Mr.  Chang  is  a  time-serving  toady.  I  wonder 
what  has  become  of  him.  It  is  now  three  months  since 
he  was  carried  off  and  no  news  has  been  heard  of  Tsow's 
junk  yet.  I  can't  help  thinking  he  may  have  somehow 
reached  Peking  and  may  now  be  plotting  something  to 
injure  us. 

Tung.  Don't  give  way  to  these  idle  fears  !  The  little 
influence  he  once  possessed  at  court  will  be  all  gone  since 
the  fiasco  he  made  in  denouncing  me  to  the  Emperor. 

Foo-kwei.  Mr.  Chang  is  sly  and  patient  and  once  in 
Peking  will  manage  to  trump  up  some  charge  against  you. 
At  least  he  is  sure  to  try  and  get  poor  Chun-hee  punished 
for  his  disobedience.  We  have  no  news  either  of  him  or 
of  Chun-hee  and  I  tremble  at  the  thought  of  what  may 
happen. 

Tung.  Let  the  future  alone,  my  daughter ;  try  to 
enjoy  the  change  in  our  circumstances  and  make  the  most 


264  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

of  this  fine  weather  while  it  lasts.  I  must  return,  my 
child,  and  attend  at  the  Yamen. — Good-bye  for  the 
present  ;  you  will  be  in  to  breakfast.     [Exit  L.) 

Foo-kwei.  Ah  !  If  I  could  only  see  Chun-hee  again,  or 
hear  from  him  what  he  is  doing  ; — but  in  this  solitude  I 
have  only  my  own  dark  thoughts  for  company.  [Retires 
up  stage,  afterwards  starts  on  perceiving  Chang  and  conceals 
herself  behind  tree.) 

Chang.  [Enters  R.  in  rags)  Oh !  How  my  bones 
ache  !  My  poor  heart !  I  shaU  never  enjoy  tranquillity 
now  until  death  puts  an  end  to  my  troubles.  And  I 
might  as  well  die  here  as  anywhere.  Better  to  be  drowned 
at  sea  and  be  food  for  fishes,  than  to  perish  miserably  of 
starvation  and  have  one's  unburied  ghost  wandering  about 
to  all  eternity.  For  starve  I  must,  amidst  these  desolate 
mountains,  nothing  but  rocks  and  stones.  Oh  !  That 
wretch  Chun-hee.  I  wish  to  heaven  I  had  never  bothered 
myself  about  him.  That  boy  has  been  the  torment  of 
my  Ufe  ever  since  my  poor  brother  died  and  left  him  to 
my  charge.  To  me,  his  adopted  father,  he  has  behaved 
as  a  parricide  and  he  shall  die  a  parricide's  death.  Yes, 
Yes  !  I  will  make  my  way  to  Peking  and  have  him  pun- 
ished by  the  lingering  death  the  law  awards  to  parricides 
[Sits  down  on  rock.) 

Foo-kwei.  [Aside)  Oh  !  What  is  to  be  done  now  ? 
Chang  come  back  !  Poor  Chun-hee  !  His  vindictive  old 
uncle  will  catch  him  after  all.     [Retires  to  tree.) 

Chang.  How  to  get  to  Peking  ? — Before  we  were 
wrecked,  old  Tsow  said  we  were  off  Shantung  and  that 
once  round  the  promontory  we  should  be  safe.  But  that 
ill-starred  junk  never  rounded  the  point  and  we  got  blown 
ashore  in  the  night  and  we  lost  everything.  It  seems  I  am 
the  only  one  who  got  ashore  alive — saved  !  but  everything 
gone  beyond  the  clothes  I  slept  in.  Luckily  I  have  a  few 
dollars  safe  in  my  girdle  and  they  will  carry  me  to  Peking 
though  it  be  300  long  miles  to  get  there.  [Rises)  Thank 
Heaven,  I  am  alive  ;  though  I  verily  believe  that  villain 
Chun-hee  bribed  the  master  to  drown  me,  and  now  old 


"PLOT   AND    COUNTERPLOT"  265 

Tsow  is  drowned  himself  and  I  am  saved.  Yes,  saved 
for  vengeance — but  how  to  get  on  ?  In  this  dress  I  shall 
be  seized  as  a  rogue  and  a  vagabond,  and  who  will  believe 
my  story  ?  Oh !  my  poor  heart !  This  excitement 
will  be  the  death  of  me.  Oh,  Chun-hee  !  You  wretch, 
you  shall  pay  for  this  !  You  thought  you  had  got  your  old 
uncle  safely  out  of  the  way.  You  little  thought  I  should 
ever  come  upon  you  again.  Oh  !  won't  he  be  startled 
when  I  come  and  break  in  on  his  honeymoon  and  lead 
him  off  to  death  !  Death  alone  is  too  good  for  him.  He 
shall  be  sliced  in  pieces  first.  A  nice  honeymoon  it  will 
be,  indeed  (rubbing  his  hands).  But  meanwhile,  I  am 
worn  out.  Where  to  get  some  food  without  being  driven 
from  the  door  ?     (Sits  down.) 

Foo-kwei.     Ah  !    Let  him  starve  ! 

{Enter  two  Peasants  R.     Cross  stage :  scream  on  perceiving 
Chang  and  retire  precipitately  L.) 

Chang.  There  !  They  already  take  me  for  a  Shan- 
tung brigand — Stay,  my  friends,  stay  !  It  is  no  use,  they 
are  off — no  wonder,  in  these  rags  and  my  hair  three  months 
unshorn  {feels  his  forehead).  Oh  !  This  excitement  will 
kiU  me  and  I  am  still  aU  wet  through  {wrings  his  clothes). 
I'll  lie  down  here  in  the  sun  and  rest  awhile.  {Lying 
down.) 

Foo-kwei.  {Comes  forward)  To  think  of  the  old  villain 
turning  up  on  this  spot !  What  shall  I  do  ?  Oh  !  Chun- 
hee  !  Why  are  you  not  here  to  help  me  ?  But  I  must 
act  again  for  both  of  us.  How  shall  I  manage  it  ?  If 
my  father  finds  out  who  it  is,  his  good-nature  will  be 
imposed  upon  and  he  will  let  Chang  go  and  we  shall  be 
destroyed.  I  would  kill  him  now  if  I  dared,  the  wretch  ! 
as  he  lies  there  sleeping.  Ye  Gods  !  Come  to  my  aid 
and  inspire  me  what  to  do.  Poor  Chun-hee,  to  die  a 
lingering  death  !  Never  !  while  thy  faithful  Foo-kwei 
is  here  to  defend  thee.  {Goes  up  to  Chang)  He  sleeps — 
now  or  never  is  my  time.  But  what  can  I  do  ?  If  I 
leave  him  here  he  may  awake  and  be  gone  before  I  return 


266  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

with  aid.  Kill  him  ?  No !  That  I  cannot  do.  Oh, 
Heaven  !    aid  me  !     (Kneels.) 

Tung.  {Attended  by  Soldiers)  My  daughter,  and  on  her 
knees  !     "WTiat  means  this  ? 

Foo-kwei.  [Risi7ig)  Is  that  you,  my  father  ?  I  was 
praying  to  Heaven  that  our  present  happiness  might 
last,  for  the  gods  are  jealous  and  our  change  of 
fortune  may  come  to  an  end  as  suddenly  as  it  appeared 
to  us. 

Tung.  Why  these  constant  fears  ?  What  have  we 
to  dread  ?  I  am  fully  restored  to  favour.  The  province 
is  tranquil  but  for  the  robber-bands  I  am  commissioned 
to  put  down.  They  have  long  infested  the  province,  but 
a  firm  hand  will  soon  make  an  end  of  them.  They  are 
nearly  aU  disposed  of  already,  and  if  I  can  arrest  their 
chief,  the  notorious  Lee-foo,  my  task  will  be  ended  and 
rewards  wiU  follow.  But  come,  my  child,  we  must  go 
in  to  breakfast.     [Turns  to  go.) 

Foo-kwei.  (Aside)  Good  Heaven !  My  prayer  is 
answered  :  I  have  it — Chang  must  be  turned  into  the 
robber  chief. 

Tung.     Come  along,  child  ;    we  will  go  in  now. 

Foo-kwei.  Stay,  father  !  Stay  !  Did  I  not  hear  that 
the  robber  chief  was  hiding  in  these  woods  ? 

Tung.  Yes,  my  child,  and  they  are  all  surrounded  by 
my  men. 

Foo-kwei.  But  he  may  hide  and  tire  them  out  and  then 
escape,  and  then  you  will  be  held  responsible  and  again 
degraded. 

Tung.  Why  these  fears  beyond  your  age  ?  Leave  these 
matters  to  me  and  enjoy  in  peace  the  respite  the  gods  have 
granted  us.  My  measures  are  all  taken  and  I  have  no 
fear  of  the  result.     (Turns  to  go.) 

Foo-kwei.  Father  !  believe  me,  I  saw  a  robber-looking 
man  here  just  now.  Suppose  it  were  Lee-foo  ;  if  he  is 
hiding  in  these  woods  it  must  be  he  !  ! 

Tung.  Nonsense,  child  !  He  would  never  show  him- 
self by  daylight. 


"PLOT   AND    COUNTERPLOT"  267 

Foo-kwei.  He  passed  and  never  saw  me — See  ! — He 
is  sleeping  here.     It  is  Lee-foo  and  no  other. 

Tung.  By  my  stars,  you  are  right.  [To  Soldiers) 
Quick  !     Seize  him  !     Search  him  ! 

Chang.  Let  me  be  !  A  poor  shipwrecked  mariner — 
Villains,  unhand  me !  {Throws  off  the  Soldiers  and  in 
doing  so  his  girdle  breaks  loose  and  dollars  fall  on  the  stage  : 
the  Soldiers  draw  their  swords,  run  after  him  and  seize  him 
again  and  throw  him  down  on  his  knees.) 

Tung.  Hold  him  fast ! — AHve  or  dead  he  must  be 
ours.  (Soldier  makes  as  though  to  cut  off  his  head)  Spare 
his  life — Don't  kill  him  yet. 

Chang.  [Aside)  This  must  be  the  bandit  chief  Lee-foo. 
(To  Tung)  Who  art  thou  ?  If  thou  be  Lee-foo  I  will 
pay  thee  a  big  ransom  to  let  me  go. 

Tung.  A  poor  mariner  and  pay  a  big  ransom.  Loaded 
with  dollars — It  is  indeed  Lee-foo  himself.  Confess, 
villain  ! 

Chang.  Confess  to  what  ?  They  are  strangHng  me 
already.     I  tell  you  I'll  pay  you  well. 

Tung.  Yes.  Pay  us  from  your  ill-gotten  gains  :  the 
plunder  of  murdered  women  and  children.  If  I  had  my 
way  you  would  not  live  another  hour,  but  the  Emperor's 
orders  must  be  obeyed  and  you  will  be  reserved  for  the 
fate  you  deserve. 

Chang.  The  Emperor's  orders  !  You  are  no  brigand  ? 
Who  then  are  you  ? 

Tung.  Tung,  Captain  of  the  Imperial  forces  in  Shan- 
tung. 

Chang.  (Aside)  What,  Tung  !  Then  I  am  undone  t 
(Falls  on  his  knees  to  Tung)  Have  patience,  your  Excel- 
lency, and  I  will  explain  all. 

Tung.  Yes,  you  had  better  confess  at  once  and  trust 
to  the  Emperor's  mercy.  The  death  by  slow  torture  you 
deserve  may  be  commuted  into  simple  crucifixion. 

Chang.  (Aside)  Oh,  Horror!  (To  Tung)  My  lord, 
you  are  mistaken,  listen  to  me.  I  am  an  official  myself, 
native  of  Canton.     I  am  no  bandit. 


268  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Tung.  A  poor  shipwrecked  mariner !  A  Canton 
official  !     What  next  !     Away  with  him  ! 

Foo-ki^ei.  That  is  well  done,  father  !  Do  not  listen 
to  the  rogue.  Carry  him  off  to  the  Yamen,  and  examine 
him  there  at  your  leisure.  {Aside)  Oh  !  How  am  I 
to  end  the  dilemma  !  Chang  will  explain  all  and  we  shall 
be  ruined.     Delay  is  my  only  chance, 

1st  Mes.     {Enter  L.)  A  letter,  my  Lord,  from  Peking. 

(Chang  continues  to  groan  and  kotow.) 

Tung.  {Taking  letter)  Why  this  is  from  Chun-hee,  my 
child !  See ! — He  writes  from  Peking,  only  a  week 
ago. 

Foo-kwei.     Chun-hee  ! — Quick  ! — What  does  he  say  ? 

Chang.  {Aside)  Chun-hee!  My  villain  nephew  !  Oh! 
The  rogue  !     What  means  this  ? 

Tung.  {Unfolding  letter)  "  To  my  esteemed  and  revered 
father :  — His  Excellency  Tung,  Provincial  Governor, 
Commanding  the  Imperial  forces  in  Shantung,  decorated 
with  the  insignia  of  the  Green  Dragon,  Junior  Guardian 
of  the  Heir  Apparent,  etc." 

Chang.  {Aside)  Impossible  !  Can  this  be  my  old 
neighbour  Tung  ? 

Tung.  Provincial  Governor  !  Junior  Guardian  of  the 
Heir  Apparent  I     Can  I  believe  my  eyes  ? 

Foo-kwei.     What  can  he  mean  ? 

Chang.     Old  Tung  raised  to  Provincial  Governor  ! 

Foo-kwei.     Read  on  !     Read  on  I 

Tung.  "  I  arrived  in  the  capital  safely  on  the  9th  day 
of  the  3rd  moon  and  took  up  my  quarters  in  the  West 
suburb,  where  I  am  now  preparing  for  the  autumn 
examinations.  I  take  the  opportunity  to  send  you  news  of 
myself  by  the  Imperial  Messenger  who  sets  out  by  express 
post  to-morrow  morning  to  convey  to  you,  as  I  hear,  the 
Emperor's  acknowledgment  of  your  success  in  extirpating 
the  robber  band  of  the  notorious  Lee-foo  and  creating 
you  Governor  of  Shantung." 

Chang.     Governor  of  Shantung  !  ! 


"PLOT   AND    COUNTERPLOT"  269 

Tung.     "  and  Junior  Guardian  of  the  Heir  Apparent." 

Foo-kwei.  {Pleased : — Chang  astonished — Clasping  her 
hands)  Junior  Guardian  of  the  Heir  Apparent !  !  ! 

Tung.  "  How  this  good  news  delights  your  poor  son, 
I  am  at  a  loss  to  express  by  letter.  How  has  Fortune 
smiled  on  you  at  last ! — but  believe  me,  it  is  with  deep  pain 
and  remorse  I  look  back  on  the  action  I  took  in  regard 
to  my  uncle  Chang — " 

Chang.     {Aside)  The  rogue  professes  remorse  ! 

Tung.  "  in  kidnapping  the  old  man  and  sending  him 
to  sea,  possibly  to  meet  a  miserable  death.  Master  Tsow's 
junk  is  now  six  weeks  overdue  and  with  the  typhoon 
now  raging  I  much  fear  some  disaster  has  occurred  and 
that  my  uncle's  unburied  ghost  will  haunt  me  and  prevent 
the  happiness  I  look  forward  to  in  making  Foo-kwei 
my  bride  and  that  his  evil  genius  will  stand  in  my  path  at 
the  coming  examinations.  I  pray  Heaven  daily  to  spare 
his  life  and  save  me  from  the  consequences  of  my  rash  and 
unfilial  conduct." 

Chang.     {Aside)  The  boy  regrets  his  villainy  after  all ! 

Tung.  "  Believe  me  I  can  never  rest  until  I  know  what 
has  happened  to  my  poor  uncle.  Oh  !  Why  did  he 
oppose  our  marriage  and  drive  me  to  this  desperate  act  ?  " 

Chang  {Aside)  I  don't  disapprove  the  marriage.  Why 
didn't  the  young  fool  say  she  was  a  rich  mandarin's 
daughter  ? 

Tung.  "  Remind  your  beloved  daughter  Foo-kwei  of 
my  eternal  devotion  to  her,  and  believe  in  my  constant 
honour  and  respect  to  my  revered  father. 

"  Dated  the  30th  day  of  the  4th  moon  of  the  12th  year 
of  the  reign  of  Kang-hsi. 

"  Signed  Chun-hee." 

Chang.     {Aside)  Can  this  be  Tung  ? 

Tung.  And  to-day  is  the  fifth  of  the  fifth  moon, — 
a  most  fortunate  day  !  {To  Messenger)  But  where  is 
the  Imperial  decree  ? 

1st  Mes.  The  Messenger  attends  with  it  in  the  Yam^n, 
— awaiting  your  Excellency's  auspicious  glance. 


270  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

Tung.     Send  him  here  at  once.    {Exit  Messenger  L.) 

Chang.  Who  would  ever  have  thought  it  ?  My  plans 
of  vengeance  are  in  vain.  He  is  now  the  Emperor's 
favourite.     The  game  is  up.     I  had  better  submit  to  fate. 

Foo-kwei.  Oh  !  My  dear  father  !  We  have  waited 
long,  but  your  merit  is  at  last  acknowledged  as  it  deserves. 
To  think  that  the  machinations  of  that  villainous  Chang 
should  have  been  the  means  of  bringing  you  again  into 
the  Emperor's  notice  !  How  he  would  be  astonished  if  he 
knew  how  his  plans  had  miscarried ! 

Chang.  {Aside)  Astonished  indeed !  {To  Tung)  My 
Lord  !     My  Lord  !     Do  you  not  know  me  ? 

Tung.  {Turning  round)  Ah  !  I  had  almost  forgotten 
our  prisoner — Away  with  him  to  the  Yamen  ! 

(Chang  struggles  and  appeals  to  Foo-kwei.) 

Foo-kwei.  Listen,  father !  On  this  happy  day,  let 
justice  be  tempered  with  mercy.  Hear  what  he  has  to 
say. 

Chang.     Yes,  hear  me  !     I  will  explain  all ! 

Tung.  The  rogue  is  at  his  old  tricks  ;  it  is  some  plan 
to  escape.  I  will  hear  him  in  Court  and  ^et  him  identified 
by  his  accomplices. 

Chang.  {Aside)  The  villains  wiU  identify  me  to  save 
themselves.  {Aloud)  Foo-kwei,  my  darling  Foo-kwei, 
hear  me  ! 

Foo-kwei.  A  fine  idea  for  a  robber  chief  like  you  to 
call  me  by  name.  Think  of  the  homes  you  have  laid  bare 
and  the  lives  you  have  destroyed.  You  had  better  repent 
and  confess  your  crimes  and  throw  yourself  on  the 
Emperor's  mercy. 

Chang.  Foo-kwei,  dear  Foo-kwei !  You  know  it  is  I, 
Chang — your  kind  neighbour  who  always  loved  you  and 
favoured  your  match. 

Foo-kwei.  Now  I  know  it  is  indeed  not  Mr.  Chang,  for 
that  hard-hearted  man  did  his  best  to  ruin  us,  and  nothing 
but  the  interposition  of  kind  Heaven  itself  saved  us  from 
utter  destruction. 


"PLOT   AND    COUNTERPLOT"  271 

Tung.  {Who,  meanwhile,  has  been  conversing  aside 
with  one  of  the  Soldiers  while  the  other  Soldier  keeps  guard 
ever  CriANG.)  Don't  waste  time  talking  to  the  wretch! 
It  will  lead  to  nothing !  He  must  soon  meet  his 
deserts. 

Chang.  Save  me,  Foo-kwei !  That  I  may  give  my 
blessing  on  your  marriage  with  my  beloved  nephew. 
(Kotows,  Foo-kwei  smiles.) 

isi  Mes.  {Enter  R.  excited)  My  Lord  !  My  Lord ! 
you  are  wanted  at  the  Yamen,  Lee-foo  has  been  caught 
and  the  whole  gang  is  now  in  our  hands. 

Tung.  Lee-foo  caught  and  in  prison  !  Why,  we  have 
just  arrested  him  here  !  It  must  be  some  other  of  the 
gang! 

1st  Mes.  No,  your  Excellency  !  It  is  he  himself !  His 
accomplices  recognised  him  at  once. 

Tung.  Then  whom  have  we  here  ?  Speak,  you 
villain  ! 

Chang.  If  your  Excellency  will  deign  to  listen  to  a 
poor  unhappy  half-drowned  wretch !  Believe  me !  I 
am  your  old  neighbour  and  dearly-loving  cousin  Chang. 

Tung.     {Starts)  Chang  !     Is  it  possible  ? 

Chang.  I  am  no  thief  but  an  honest  official.  I  set 
sail  from  Canton  three  months  back,  intending  to  proceed 
to  the  capital.  It  had  always  pained  me  to  see  an  official 
of  your  Excellency's  worth  living  in  enforced  retirement. 

Foo-kwei.     {Aside)  The  old  humbug  ! 

Chang.  And  I  had  determined  to  risk  the  voyage  in 
the  hope  of  bringing  your  merits  to  the  Emperor's  notice  : 
but  I  see  I  have  been  happily  forestalled.  .  .  . 

Tung.  It  is  he  indeed.  I  should  never  have  recog- 
nised him.  {To  Soldiers)  Let  him  go.  {To  Chang)  I  am 
indeed  sorry  to  see  you  in  this  plight.  Come  home  with 
us  and  I  will  have  you  properly  provided  for.  {To  Foo- 
KWEi)     Come  along,  my  child.     {Turns  to  go.) 

2nd  Mes.  My  Lord !  Here  is  the  Imperial  Edict 
you  sent  for  me  to  bring,  together  with  the  robes 
and  insignia  of  the  Green  Dragon  presented  to  you  by 


272  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

His   Majesty.     [Kneeling  and    holding  out  the  edict  and 
insignia  case  reverentially.) 

Tung.  [Kneels  to  receive  the  edict,  rises,  and  hands  it 
to  Attendants)  Open  it  out.     Let  us  read  it. 

Chang.  Ah,  dear  Foo-kwei !  I  can't  tell  you  what 
pleasure  it  gives  me  to  see  you  looking  so  well — and  your 
dear  father  too.  I  am  so  glad  I  have  been  able  to  help  him. 
You  don't  know  how  sorry  I  felt  to  see  you  so  badly  off 
in  Canton. 

Foo-kwei.  Let  me  be  !  I  wish  I  had  never  known  you. 
You  did  your  best  to  ruin  my  poor  father,  and  Chun-hee 
might  have  been  drowned  for  all  you  cared. 

Chang.  You  misjudge  me,  Foo-kwei.  If  I  had  known 
how  charming  you  were,  I  should  not  have  hesitated  to 
let  Chun-hee  marry  you  at  once,  but  he  never  would 
confide  in  me. 

Foo-kwei.  No,  I  should  think  not  when  he  knew  you 
were  only  anxious  to  get  rid  of  him.  Why  did  you  not 
let  him  go  to  Peking  by  land  ? 

Chang.  I  wanted  to  give  him  time  to  reflect.  There  is 
nothing  like  the  sea  for  this  and  for  improving  one's 
condition. 

Foo-kwei.     So  it  seems,  to  judge  by  your  appearance. 

Chang.  Oh,  look  !  Just  look  at  your  father.  It  does 
my  heart  good  to  see  him.  I  thank  Heaven  that  I  have 
lived  to  contribute  to  this  happiness. 

Foo-kwei.  [Impatiently)  Have  done  !  Cease  this 
nonsense  ! 

[Two  Messengers  unfold  the  document  across  stage,  while 
the  two  Soldiers  help  Tung  to  don  his  robes,  etc.) 

Tung.  [In  his  new  robes,  hat,  and  insignia)  'Tis  true 
indeed — as  Chun-hee  writes — How  now,  friend  Chang  ? 
[Taking  F.'s  hand)  Will  you  let  your  wicked  nephew 
marry  the  girl  of  his  choice  ? 

Chang.  Of  course  I  will,  my  dear  friend.  [Comes 
fotijvard  and  takes  Foo-kwei 's  hand)  This  union  has  been 
my  heart's  desire  from  the  beginning. 

Foo-kwei.     Then  at  last  we  shall  be  happy  ! 


"PLOT   AND    COUNTERPLOT"  273 

Chang.     (Aside)  Yes,  and  all  owing  to  me  ! 

M. 

S. 
M.  S. 

C.  F.  T. 

M.M.  =  Messengers  with  edict. 
S.S.  =  Soldiers. 
C.F.T.  =.  Chang,  Foo-kwei 
and  Tung  hand-in-hand. 

CURTAIN. 


THE    RAT'S    PLAINT 

TRANSLATED    FROM    THE    ORIGINAL    CHINESE 

PREFACE 

This  little  jeu  d' esprit  is  well  known,  but,  as  with  many 
of  our  own  nursery  classics,  its  authorship  is  unacknow- 
ledged. I  bought  my  copy  at  a  book-stall  in  Ichang  for 
i|d.  Whether  it  dates  from  the  Sung  dynasty  (twelfth 
century),  as  one  wise  native  informed  me  it  did,  or  later, 
I  am  unable  to  say.  Suffice  it  that,  apart  from  its  unques- 
tioned humour,  the  poem  gives  us  incidentally  some 
interesting  and  effective  pictures  of  Chinese  social  life, 
and  so  has,  I  venture  to  think,  a  more  than  ephemeral 
interest  and  needs  no  apology  from  me  for  its  introduction 
to  Western  readers. 

The  "  Plaint  laid  by  the  Rat  against  the  Cat  "  is  told 
in  the  common  two-lined  stanza  of  seven  syllables  to  the 
line.  It  comprises  222  of  these  lines  and  is  written  in 
what  may  be  called  the  colloquial  style  of  Chinese  versifi- 
cation. All  the  words  being  monosyllables,  each  syllable 
is  a  word  and  so  each  line  contains  seven  words,  and,  we 
may  say,  seven  feet.  It  has  been  my  endeavour  to  make 
the  translation  as  literal  as  possible  and  to  avoid  paraphrase. 
I  have  allowed  myself  seven  dissyllables  in  each  English 
line  as  an  equivalent  for  the  seven  monosyllables  of  the 
original,  and  have  thus  a  two-lined  stanza,  equally  of  seven 
feet,  by  which  to  render  the  Chinese  stanza,  which  rhymes 
in  tone  but  not  in  sound  : — in  both  the  ccesura  comes 
after  the  fourth  foot. 

274 


THE    RAT'S    PLAINT  275 

In  order  to  convey  an  idea  of  Chinese  metrical  rhythm, 
I  give  below  a  word-for-word  rendering  (sound  and 
meaning)  of  the  first  two  stanzas.  I  might  have  instructed 
students  and  exercised  their  ingenuity  by  contenting  my- 
self with  this  form  of  translation  throughout,  but  by  so 
doing  I  should,  I  fear,  have  turned  away  that,  numerically, 
more  estimable  party, — the  General  Reader. 

Tso  ye  lao  shu — pei  mao  shang, 
Hun  pe  miao  miao — kao  yin  tsoang, 
Chia  chu  chiu  tsai — kao  pi  fu, 
Ti  ku  tung  li — she  chia  hsiang. 

Last  night  old  rat — catch  cat  hurt, 
Soul  spirit  float  fly — lay  "  dark  "  plaint. 
Home  dwell  indeed  at — high  wall  city. 
Earth  hole  cave  in — is  home  land. 

Archibald  Little. 
Ichang,  April  15,  1891. 

THE   RAT'S   PLAINT 
(Lao  Shu  Kao  Chuang) 
A  Chinese  Legend 
Last  night  poor  Rat,  by  cruel  Cat,  was  dealt  a  violent  How  a  cruel 

■p.      ,1    .  deed  of  death 

Jjeatn  .  vfd^s  done 

In  Hades  dim,  a  Ghoul  slim,  a  shadow  without  breath, 
To  Pluto's  Court  he  holds  resort,  and  thus  his  plaint  he 
saith  : 

I 

In  a  high  walled  town  I  had  my  home,  in  a  burrow  in  the  ^'^^  ^^^  ^at 

J  laid  hiv, 

ground,  plaint 

By  name  I'm  known  as  the  Ashen  Rat  in  all  the  country 

round. 
To  Hades  prematurely  sent,  my  soul  for  justice  longs  ; 
Before  thy  dread  Tribunal,  Prince,  I  come  to  plead  my 

wrongs  : 
Between  my  teeth  I  hold  my  Plaint  and  beseech  your 

Royal  Grace 
To  listen  to  the  cruel  woes  heaped  on  our  suffering  race. 


276  GLEANINGS    FROM   CHINA 

II 

Since  Heaven's  Ukase  first  ordained  the  Rat  to  live  and 

thrive, 
Their  long  descent  they  proudly  trace  from  forbears  once 

aUve, 
Who  reigned  in  honour  through  the  land,  in  thirty  counties 

wide, 
With  mandate  to  collect  their  food  from  off  the  country 

side  : 
To  take  their  toll  of  the  five  chief  grains  ;    rice,  millet, 

wheat,  hemp,  bean  : 
To  raise  the  rodent  tribe  in  peace,  with  all  their  kith  and 

kin — 
Each  with  his  name,  each  in  his  place,  as  plainly  here  is 

seen. 

Ill 

First  comes  the  Squirrel,   vagabond,   to  ornament  the 

groves  : 
The  Lizard,  little  though  he  be,  on  high  walls  skyward 

roves : 
The  Weasel  sups  on  chickens  sweet,  roams  early  forth  and 

late: 
The  Ermine  yields  his  matchless  coat  to  decorate  the 

great  : 
The    noble    Sable's    skin    is    worn   by   Princes   on   the 

throne  : 
The  humble  Water-rat  as  kin,  by  marriage,  too,  I  o\mi. 
The  Bat,  that  noxious  insects  eats,  on  my  mother's  side 

I  claim  : 
The    lusty    Badger    in    his    hole    as    distant    Coz',    we 

name. 
The  Ferret,  poor  connection's  son,  we  generously  adopt, 
Nor  from  our  family  tree,  the  Stoat,  though  graceless, 

have  we  drop't. 
The  Otter   too,   as   adopted   son,    owns    our   Ancestral 

Hall : 
And  last,  not  least,  the  Water-hog  our  relative  we  call. 


THE   RAT'S   PLAINT  277 

IV 

To  all  this  Lordly  race  akin,  no  peace  enjoys  the  Rat :        J^^e  rat 
By  night  and  day,  go  where  he  may,  he's  harried  by  the  his  murder 

Cat. 
The  Black  Cat  comes  without  remorse  to  scatter  Man  and 

Wife, 
Holds  in  respect  no  family  tie — seeks  nought  but  war  and 

strife — 
No  bowels  of  compassion  owns  but  hourly  seeks  our  life. 
So  that  no  more  by  light  of  day  we  dare  to  raise  our  head, 
But  hide  in  holes,  while  tears  run  down  for  a  Brother  newly 

dead. 
And  when  at  night  we  venture  forth  to  seek  a  little  grain. 
The  dreaded  Cat's  eyes'  glance  we  meet,  which  drives  us 

back  again. 
With  her  four  feet  one  spring  she  makes,  with  two  paws 

holds  and  tears, 
And  once  within  her  cruel  grasp  no  plea  for  mercy  hears  : 
Then  with  fierce  mouth  bites  through  the  nape  and  carries 

off  her  prey, 
Nor  hears  the  poor  Rat's  agony,  but  quickly  runs  her  way. 
Past  the  granary  towering  high  with  its  heaped  up  store 

of  rice, 
Past  the  house  and  courtyard  wide  to  a  dark  and  lonely 

place, 
Where  first  she  sniffs,  next,  gingerly,  the  poor  Rat's  life 

blood  tastes  ; 
Then  quickly  gulps  her  nauseous  feast — no  particle  she 

wastes. 
Heart,  liver,  guts,  skin,  tail  and  all.  Oh  !    'tis  a  ghastly 

sight ! 
There's  nothing  of  the  poor  Rat  left,  but  his  bones  licked 

clean  and  bright. 
Meanwhile  his  sons   and  daughters  small,  awaiting  his 

return. 
Peer  forth  from  out  their  little  hole  some  news  of  him  to 

learn, 


278  GLEANINGS    FROM   CHINA 

And  when  their  Sire's  sad  fate  they  see  they  bid  their 

Mother  come, 
Who  runs  and  leaves  her  hairless  babes  to  watch  and  weep 

at  home. 
And  now  the  hapless  daughters  no  wedding  portion  own  : 
The  sons  can  get  no  wives,  for  their  money  is  all  gone. 
Bad  quarrels  soon  ensue  ;  the  young  are  kept  from  school ; 
Brothers  and  Sisters  snap  and  snarl,  neglecting  every  rule. 
Paterfamilias  dead  and  gone,  there's  none  can  order  keep, 
No  lord  nor  head  more  in  the  hole  where  I  was  wont  to 

sleep. 
So  down  I  flit  to  Hades,  by  grievous  wrongs  attaint. 
Before  its  mighty  Ruler,  Great  King  ! — to  lay  my  plaint. 

V 

The  King  of  The  king  of  Hades  hears  his  tale,  and  notes  his  awful 

Hades  hears  j 

his  tale  wounds  ; 

Empowers  the  Rat  to  lodge  his  plea  and  justifies  his 

grounds  ; 
Sends  forth  his  sable  myrmidons  to  scour  the  country 

round. 
And  quickly  seize  the  old  black  Cat,  where'er  she  may  be 

found — 
Straight  to  be  questioned  of  her  crime  in  Yamen  under- 
ground. 

VI 
How  the       Two  constables  at  once  set  out  from  forth  the  Judgment 

constables  .  . 

set  forth  and  ^^'^^  • 

search  for      The  rolling  hills  and  mountains  high  assiduously  they  beat, 
the  rat  q,^^  streamlets  shoal  and  rivers  deep  they  pass  day  after 

day, 
High  over  all  they  hold  their  heads,  wide  scanning  for  their 

prey  ; 
Spy  many  a  scion  of  the  tribe  but  ne'er  Defendant  speak.  • 
Of  one  the  body  is  too  short  ;  of  one  the  frame  too  sleek  ; 
This  one  has  feet  with  hoarfrost  tipped  ;  that  one  has  tail 
that  curls  ; 


THE    RAT'S    PLAINT  279 

Another's  inky  hide  is  striped  ;    another's  decked  with 

pearls  ; 
Rice-powdered  is  the  mouth  of  one;  another's  mottled 

nose  ; 
And  another's  snow-white  flanks  all  fail  the  culprit  to 

disclose. 
Some  Pussies'  coats  are  yellow  ;    some  amber  streaked 

with  dark  ; 
No  member  of  the  feline  race  but  has  a  special  mark. 
Each  roaming  Tom,  each  stealthy  Puss  most  warily  they 

scan 
In  vain  ! — And  wonder  if  Black  Cat  was  ever  seen  of  man. 

VII 

At  length,  uncertain  what  to  do,  worn  with  the  search  ^p^  t^e 

wicked. 
they'd  made,  murderess  is 

The  two  men  stop  to  rest  awhile  beneath  a  willow's  shade,  caught 
They  gaze  across  the  spreading  fields  :   they  hear  the  gay 

birds  sing  : 
They  look  upon  the  sprouting  crops  rejoicing  in   the 

Spring  : 
They  watch  the  insects  on  the  tree  :  how  the  Spider  spins 

o'er  head. 
How  the  Caterpillar  up  and  down  goes  dancing  on  his 

thread. 
The  Dragon-fly  across  the  pool  arrests  their  tired  gaze — 
Then,  suddenly,  they  raise  their  heads,  when  Lo  !  to  their 

amaze. 
Above  them  squats  the  old  Black  Cat  on  the  selfsame 

Willow-tree 
Munching  a  Mantis'  carcase  green,  as  quiet  as  can  be  ! 

VIII 

Now  see  them  raise  their  eyebrows  and  roll  astonished  ^o""'  t^^ 

.  murderess 

^y^S  .  pleads  for  a 

With  face  broad  as  the  Ocean  the  elder  BaiHff  cries —         respite 
*'  Quick  !     Seize  the  old  delinquent ! — You  wicked,  mur- 
dering Cat, 


28o  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

I  arrest  you  on  the  plaint  deposed  in  the  suit  of  Mister 

Rat." 
When  Pussy  hears  these  awful  words  her  tears  begin  to 

flow  ; 
She  bows  down  to  the  Constables  and  thus  relates  her  woe  : 
"  Now  hearken  to  my  prayer,  ye  two  !     In  mercy  let  me 

go! 
"  I've  not  yet  ate  my  morning  rice  !     My  body's  light  as 

chaff! 
"  My  bones  stick  out  like  firewood,  my  tail  is  like  a  staff, 
"  The  only  food  I've  had  to-day  is  a  Sparrow's  liver  small 
"  With  half  the  head  of  a  Uttle  Swift  and  nothing  else  at  all. 
"  Just  let  me  go  and  fetch  some  grain  to  take  to  the  shades 

t  below, 
"  Where  Pluto  holds  his  dreadful  Court  I     Then  peaceably 

I'll  go." 
Rage  seizes  on  the  constables  ;  they  lay  Puss  on  a  block 
And  round  her  neck  an  iron  chain  they  fasten  with  a  lock. 
"  You  miserable  Cat  !  "  they  say,  "  for  many  a  night  and 

day" 
"  Just  for  your  sake  we've  hurried  on, — and  now  you  plead 

delay  !  " 
They  push  and  shove  ;  she  pulls  and  strives  with  many  a 

weary  moan. 
Until  at  last  they  land  her  safe  before  the  shady  Throne. 

IX 

When  Pluto  saw  the  prisoner  brought  his  anger  knew  no 

bounds. 
"Vile  wretch,"  he  cried,  "you  see  this  Rat!   Whence 

come  his  awful  wounds  ? 
"  As  Plaintiff  he  accuses  you,  and  not  in  vain,  I  trow, 
"  Comes  he  to  me  for  justice,  as  your  sentence  soon  will 

show  : — 
"  First  forty  blows  upon  your  mouth  and  then  to  prison 

go!" 
When  Black  Cat  hears  this  verdict,  tears  start  into  her 

eyes : 


THE    RAT'S    PLAINT  281 

"  Great  Judge,  I  am  not  guilty  :   hear  my  defence,"  she 

cries  : — 
"  In  further  India's  distant  land,  by  holy  Buddha's  shrine, 
"  In  ages  past  my  Ancestors  were  offered  rice  and  wine. 
"  'Twas  then  the  wicked  rodent  tribe  began  to  vex  the 

realm 
"  And  our  famed  Eastern  capital  with  ruin  to  o'erwhelm, 
"  YiW  '  Pow,'  renowned  Prime  Minister  of  our  dynasty 

sublime 
"  Into  the  Prince's  presence  led  the  Cat, — who  for  all  time 
"  Did  there  receive  the  Royal  Command  (such  was  the 

sacred  Will) 
"  Throughout  the  land  the  Rat  and  Mouse  to  harry  and  to 

kill; 
"  To  hunt  them  out  of  every  house,  from  every  farm  and 

mill. 

X 
"  And,  know,  my  highborn  lineage  commands  respect  from  Of  the  crimes 

all. 
"  The  Tiger  fierce,  the  Lion  bold,  themselves  my  pupils 

call: 
"  And  many  a  noble  quadruped,  that  roams  the  forest 

wide, 
"  Is  proud  to  own  our  Race  as  Kin,  and  hunt  the  Cat 

beside. 
"  The   Cheetah,    Jackal   and   the   Pard,    the   illustrious 

Dragon  rare 
■"  My  friends  and  high  connections  are — a  line  beyond 

compare  ! 
"  Alone  the  Ape  and  Monkey  tribe  no  more  as  friends  we 

own, 
"  For  cause — their  lack  of  conscience  and  want  of  filial 

tone ! 
"  And  so  with  Rat  and  Mouse,  My  Lord,  we  never  could 

agree, 
■"  For  they  too  are  dishonest  and  steal  where'er  they  be. 
"  Look,  how  they  roam  about  in  troops  !     As  an  army 

they  set  out. 


282 


GLEANINGS   FROM   CHINA 


Of  the  death 
of  the  poor, 
good,  slave 
girl 


"  And,  not  content  with  petty  thefts,  they  make  a  perfect 

rout. 
"  Tramp  !  tramp  !  they  trot  in  single  file ;  along  the  beam 

they  run  ; 
"  The  Mothers  bring  their  baskets ;   the  Girl  rats  aid  the 

fun; 
"  Then  down  they  sit  on  a  Rafter  high  and  chaunt  a  merry 

Lay, 
"  Just  like  a  new  fledged  Graduate  conning  o'er  his  prize 

Essay ; 
"  Then  all  at  once  they  scurry  off — agood-for-nothing  lot — 
"  Into  the  Temple  shrine  close  by,  where  wanton  deeds 

they  plot : 
"  They  gnaw  the  wood  from  Buddha's  face,  the  paint  from 

off  his  thumb, 
"  And  sacrilegious  teeth  insert  in  Joss-stick  and  in  Drum. 
"Then  off  they  rush  to  the  Common  School,  where  the 

boys  their  books  recite, 
"  And  there  the  sacred  Classic  tomes  remorselessly  they  bite. 
"  And  when  the  Bride  in  state  comes  home  the  Son  of  the 

House  to  wed, 
"  They  gnaw  their  way  thro'  the  Marriage  gifts  and  carouse 

upon  her  bed, 
"Gnaw  thro'  the  bamboo  baskets, thro' the  pigskin  trunks 

and  all, 
"  Eat  up  the  rice  and  walnut  cakes,  spread  out  in  the 

banquet  hall : 
"  The  Silks,  Brocades  and  Satins  rich  with  their  graceless 

teeth  they  spoil ; 
"  Attack  the  Furs  ;    the  Bed  Quilts  too  with  their  dirty 

feet  they  soil, 
"  And  Hairpins,  Earrings  to  their  hole  they  drag  with 

merry  toil ! 

XI 
"  At  early  dawn  my  Lady  comes  to  dress  and  comb  her 

hair, 
"  To  paint  her  lips  and  rouge  her  cheeks  and  deck  her 

bosom  fair  : 


THE    RAT'S    PLAINT  283 

'  She  finds  the  rouge  box  overturned,  her  pins  and  rings 

adrift, 
'  Then  beats  the  little  Slave  girl  poor,  accusing  her  of  theft. 
'  '  'Tis  you  that  must  have  stole  my  rings,  you  Httle 

Wretch  !  '  she  cries  ; 
' '  I  see  you've  gone  and  sold  them  all  for  sweeties  and 

for  pies.' 
'  Ah  !   how  the  poor  young  Slave  girl  weeps  and  broods 

upon  her  lot, 
'  Her  Mistress'  injustice  feels  and  the  cruel  stripes  still  hot, 
'  And  sobbing  moans  : — '  I  hate  them  both,  my  Master 

and  his  Wife  ! 
'  '  Why  weakly  did  my  parents  sell  their  daughter  to  this 

life? 
'  *  I've  neither  Dad  nor  Mammy  left,  to  whom  my  griefs 

to  teU. 
' '  How  can  I  bear  these  cruel  blows  and  unjust  blame  as 

well  ?  ' 
'  So  weeping  lies  and  shivering  cries  throughout  the  dreary 

night  : 
'  Then  in  the  mom,  at  early  dawn,  she  hangs  herself  out- 
right. 

XII 
'  In  this  we  see  how  the  wicked  Rat  of  conscience  is  How  that 

J         .  ,  too  lies  at 

devoid  :  the  door  ol 

'  His  crimes  he  shifts  on  a  poor  Slave  girl,  and  cares  not  ^^^  wicked 

how  she  died. 
'  He  gnaws  his  way,  mischievous  beast,  through  door  and 

shutter  tight ; 
'  Unearthly  sounds  his  racketting  maintains  throughout 

the  night. 
'  For  Rats  and  Mice  no  law  respect :    they  break  with 

unconcern  : 
'  Rattle  the  tea  cups  on  the  shelf  and  winepots  overturn  : 
'  The  candles  ht  before  the  god — his  incense  too  they 

gnaw  : 
'  They  make  a  playroom  of  the  bed,  a  parade-ground  of 

the  floor  : 


284  GLEANINGS   FROM   CHINA 

"  Then  run  along  the  foot-board  with  a  noise  Hke  hurling 

spears, 
"  Jump  down  upon  the  lamp-stand,  which  in  its  fall  the 

curtain  tears, 
"  Bang  !     Bang  !     They  scuttle  home  at  last  just  ere  the 

dawn  appears, 

XIII 

How  the       "  And  now  the  thrifty  housewife  gets  up  and  dons  her 

lady  of  the  j 

house  finds  uicsa, 

her  dress       "  And  finds  it  like  an  Oilman's — a  nasty  greasy  mess  ! 
how'the  p°o'!)r  "  The  Husband,  when  he  sees  it,  exclaims  with  rising 
cat  dies  of  spleen  : — 

grief  "  '  Go  !    curse  that  good-for-nothing  Cat  !     I'll  skin  her 

carcase  clean  ! 
"  '  Each  day  with  fish  and  rice  she's  fed  !     My  kindness 

now  I  rue ! 
"  '  What  use  to  give  her  house  and  home  when  she  no 

work  will  do  ?  ' 
"  And  thus  the  poor,  black,  faithful  Cat  her  soul  with 

anguish  rends, 
"  Until  at  last  her  harassed  life  a  dish  of  poison  ends. 

XIV 

How  the  cat  "  Believe  me  now,  most  mighty  Judge  and  puissant  Prince 

rISf  '"  of  Hell ! 

"  From  the  bottom  of  my  heart  distraught  the  honest 

truth  I  tell. 
"  Deign  to  regard  my  humble  plea,  nor  my  just  rights 

refuse. 
"  Consider  who  the  plaintiff  is,  that  dares  the  cat  accuse — 
"  A  miserable  old,  grey  Rat,  that  nought  of  virtue  knows, 
"  Whose  glaring  orbs  and  eyebrows  straight  his  vicious 

heart  disclose. 
"  A  wretch  that  never  conscience  owned  !    a  brute  that's 

steeped  in  vice  ! 
"  Dares  now  arraign  the  pious  cat  and  feign  a  grievance 

nice. 


THE    RAT'S    PLAINT  285 

"  Away  with  him  to  the  prison  cell !   bring  forth  the  tor- 
ture rack  ! 

"  Chastise  him  with  two  hundred  blows  upon  his  sinful 
back  ! 

"  Fix  round  his  neck  the  wooden  Cangue,  and  his  crimes 
on  it  record, 

"  That  all  the  world  may  read  his  guilt  and  justice  high 
applaud." 

XV 

The  Judge  approved  the  Cat's  defence  and  ordered  her '^j^f.Pf'^p® 

J  ^        rf  Qf  Hades' 

release  :  senteace 

Decreed  the  Rat  a  two  months'  Cangue,  her  anger  to 

appease  : 
Ordained  that  She  at  once  go  free  to  the  bright  day  world 

above, 
There  to  hold  guard  o'er  Rick  and  Farm,  in  Granary  and 

Grove, 
And,  if  again  Old  Rat  she  met,  to  chase  him  as  of  yore. 
Black  Cat  this  charge  on  her  knees  received,  then  left 

the  dismal  shore 
And  came  to  live  in  man's  abode,  ne'er  to  be  harassed 

more  ! 
And  thus  the  Cat  is  cherished  now  in  Hovel  and  in  Hall, 
And  the  thieving  Rat  scarce  dares  to  quit  his  Hollow  in 

the  Wall. 

L'Envoi 

This  curious  tale  in  one  small  book  I  give  to  light  the  age. 
My  noble  Friends,  when  Cares  oppress,  seek  refuge  in  my 

Page. 
And  Boys  and  Girls  in  England,  for  whom  this  Tale  I  tell 
Take  note  of  Pussy  Cat's  good  deeds  and  always  treat  her 

weU! 


Part   IV :    Religion   and   Philosophy 

IN   A   BUDDHIST   MONASTERY 

The  following  lines  were  written  at  the  request  of  the 
abbot  of  a  temple  in  the  Cheng-tu  plain,  the  Lung-chang- 
sze,  an  old  Buddhist  monastery  situated  in  the  Hien  or 
district  of  Hsin-fan,  about  twenty  miles  north  of  the 
capital,  Cheng-tu,  on  the  road  to  Mien-chu.  It  occupies 
a  beautiful  site,  surrounded  by  a  forest  of  grand  old 
trees,  and  is  said  to  date  from  the  Han  dynasty.  The 
abbot  was,  when  we  visited  it,  a  man  of  uncommon  cul- 
ture, and  very  friendly  to  foreign  visitors,  whom  he 
entertained  free  of  charge.  He  is  able  to  do  this,  as  the 
monastery  is  well  endowed  and  independent  of  offerings 
from  the  faithful.  The  place  lies  at  some  distance  from 
the  main  road  and  is  little  frequented  by  worshippers. 
It  is  celebrated  among  literary  Chinese  for  its  wealth  of 
"  pei-tse,"  of  which  there  are  many  hundreds  scattered 
through  the  different  pavilions.  These  are  records 
engraved  on  stone  and  are  in  the  handwriting  of  numerous 
celebrated  visitors  of  the  present  and  previous  dynasties, 
among  them  the  poet  Su-tung-po  of  the  Sung  dynasty. 
The  buildings  and  grounds  are  in  excellent  condition,  and 
the  outlying  "dependencies"  or  guest  houses  are  excep- 
tionally clean  and  comfortable.  In  visiting  estabhsh- 
ments  like  the  Lung-chang-sze,  one  cannot  but  be  struck 
with  the  social  aspect  of  Chinese  Buddhism,  be  the  religi- 
ous aspect  satisfactory  or  otherwise  according  to  the 
views  held  by  the  foreign  visitor.  One  pleasing  feature 
there  was  the  care  bestowed  upon  the  education  of  the 
boy  monks  ;  these  have  a  lay  professor  to  ground  them 
in  the  Confucian  classics  apart  from  the  religious  teaching 

286 


IN    A    BUDDHIST   MONASTERY  287 

of  the  Buddhist  sutras,  a  teaching  which,  to  most,  is 
doubtless  little  more  than  mechanical ;  yet  the  repose 
and  good  order  of  the  establishment  can  hardly  fail  of 
a  moral  effect  on  resident  and  visitor  alike.  The  monks 
are,  of  course,  strict  vegetarians ;  the  abbot's  table  we 
found  most  appetising,  so  varied,  so  clean  and  so  well 
served  were  the  dishes  provided. 

A  Chinese  translation  of  the  following  lines  was  hanging 
in  the  monastery  when  last  visited  by  a  foreigner. 

The   wayworn    traveller   from    distant   land, — buffeted    by    the 

mighty  ocean,  sore  from  the  lofty  mountains, — 
Weary  of  cities,  the  roar  of  the  market,  the  strife  of  the  trader,  the 

vain  pomp  of  officials. 
Tired  of  the  road,  the  sorebacked  horses,  the  sweating  coolies  : 
Sick  of  the  inns,  their  noise,  their  dirt,  their  animals  manylegged, 
Pining  for  wife  and  child,  for  home  and  friends — 
"  Go  to !  "  said  a  Chinese  acquaintance,  "  go,  rest  in  the  abbey  of 

Lung-chang !  " 
Sad  and  worn  I  set  forth  on  the  march  to  the  sacred  spot,  to  the 

mystical  "  Dragon's  Lair:  " 
Riding  a  horse  of  the  country  :  the  deep  mire  covered  his  fetlocks. 
Other  temples  many  had  I  visited  during  forty  and  more  years  in 

the  "  flowery  land  "  ; 
Some  in  ruins,  aged  with  poverty  ;    others  flourishing,  but  noisy 

with  crowds  of  touring  pilgrims. 
On  entering  I  doubted  :   Here  too  shall  I  find  peace  ? 
I  turned  aside  from  the  muddy  highway  and  beheld  a  forest  of 

stately  shade  trees ; 
Crossing  the  swollen  river  by  an  old-world  many-arched  bridge — 
'Twas  the  torrid  month  of  August,  the  close  of  the  sun-burning 

dog-days — 
Hot  and  stained  with  travel  approached  I  the  highwalled  entrance. 
Passed  through  the  triple  gateway,  pierced  in  the  wall  painted 

crimson  : 
Rode  through  the  cedar  avenue,  by  yellow  and  green  tiled  pavilions : 
Entered  the  spacious  courtyards,  wide  as  an  emperor's  palace  : 
Met  with  a  royal  welcome  from  the  kindhearted  priest  of  the 

temple  ! 
"  Skiff  Star-ascending  "  his  name  ;   pious  and  true  was  his  aspect. 
Then  a  feast  of  fresh  herbs,  nutritious  and  free  from  all  bloodshed  : 
Tea  from  the  gardens  of  Buddha,  fused  in  the  bright  sparkUng 

river. 
Holy  the  calm  that  o'erspread  me  ;   deep  the  repose  of  my  spirit. 
Five  daj'S  I  spent  in  the  precincts  ;  days  to  be  treasured  for  ever  : 
Sweet  the  commune  with  the  learned,  sweet  too  the  dictates  of 

Buddha ! 


288  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

These  were  the  teachings  of  Jesus  :  love,  duty,  a  Ufe  of  compassion. 
Much  we  compared  the  doctrines  :    both  we  would  fain  strive^to 

follow  ! 
Prayed  for  a  better  time  coming,  when  the  truths  of  Buddha's 

mild  teaching  ; 
The  hope  and  the  faith  of  the  Christian,  shall  soften  the  hearts  of 

our  peoples. 
Till  peace  universal  shall  reign  as  it  reigns  in  the  courts  of  the 

Lung-chang. 

Again  to  return  to  the  wide  world,  sweet  sorrow  o'erwhelms  me 
at  parting  ! 

Behind  me  I  leave  this  expression ;    too  feeble,  but  heartfelt, 
sincere. 

With  a  prayer  that  heaven  may  bless  and  grant  long  life  to  the 
abbot ; 

Guard  the  wonderful  treasures,  the  relics  of  poets  and  sages  ! 

Long  may  its  sacred  inscriptions  be  spared  as  they  have  been  of 
old  time  ! 

Long  may  the  traveller  remember  his  peaceful  stay  in  the  Lung- 
chang  ! 

Long  may  the  monks  of  the  Lung-chang  remember  the  waif  from 
afar ! 

August,  1902. 


The  Fortification  Staff  at  tlie  British  Legation,  Peking,  1900. 

\Vit/i  the  Nordeitfeldt  rahid-firc  Hiin  and  Mai-inc-Serncant  Miiii>Jiy  bcliitul.  Rev. 
Dr.  Gaiiiexcell,  Am.  Mefliotlist,xclio  dcsigiied  nil  ilie  foHi.ticatious.  xcitlijinn  oiit- 
.sf, etched:  to  his  left  .Mr.  Morris.  Eiin.  North  China  Mission.  .Messrs.  Stouehon.se 
tind  Cluipliii.  .Messrs.  Hiciiii<  and  Killic  (who  took  the  photonfit'h I  behnul. 
Commonly  called  the  Six  I'iahtinU  Parsons. 

To  face  p.  2m. 


MISSIONARIES    IN   CHINA 

(NOT    PREVIOUSLY    PUBLISHED) 

To  one  who  like  myself  has  spent  the  greater  part  of  his 
life  in  China  and  knows  the  Chinese  as  weU  as  it  is  possible 
to  know  a  people  so  alien  in  character  and  training,  the 
events  connected  with  the  Boxer  Rising  were  peculiarly 
lamentable.  The  depth  of  the  anti-foreign  feeling  re- 
vealed in  that  outbreak  is  difficult  to  appreciate,  and  we 
naturally  seek  for  its  cause  and  long  to  discern  a  remedy. 
Forty  years  back  I  had  occasion  to  travel  widely  in  the 
Che-kiang,  Ngan-hui,  Kiang-si  and  others  of  the  Central 
provinces  of  China,  and  although  occasionally  molested, 
I  generally  found  the  people  friendly  and  above  all  hos- 
pitable. Fortune,  the  Kew  botanist,  who  first  brought  to 
light  the  wealth  of  the  Chinese  flora,  has  left  us  a  charm- 
ing account  of  his  life  amidst  the  people  in  the  interior 
of  Che-kiang  and  of  his  kindly  feeling  towards  them  ; 
a  perusal  of  his  travels  shews  us  that  in  the  districts  he 
visited  practically  no  antagonism  to  a  well-conducted 
"  Foreigner "  then  existed,  notwithstanding  that  the 
memory  of  the  cruel  war  with  England  of  1840-42  was 
still  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  people  :  but  by  the  masses 
this  war  was  regarded  as  an  affair  of  the  mandarins,  whose 
mismanagement  had  brought  about  the  trouble,  and  so 
individual  travellers  were  not  molested.  M,  Eugene  Simon, 
who  at  this  period  was  stationed  at  Ningpo  as  French 
Consul,  has  also  left  us  a  most  sympathetic  study  of 
Chinese  social  life  in  his  delightful  book  La  Citt  Chinoise^ 
which  deserves  to  be  more  widely  read  in  England  and 
America  than  I  imagine  it  has  been. 
u  289 


290  GLEANINGS    FROM   CHINA 

In  the  province  of  Szechuan,  where  I  have  mostly 
lived,  as  well  as  in  the  neighbouring  provinces  of 
Kweichow  and  Yunnan,  the  people  are  of  an  easy- 
going, sociable  disposition,  so  that  next  to  Japan, 
travel  in  Western  China,  with  its  magnificent  scenery, 
has  hitherto  been  as  pleasant  and  no  more  difficult 
than  elsewhere  in  Asia  where  railways  and  steamers 
have  not  yet  penetrated.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  a  know- 
ledge of  the  language  is  a  sine  qua  non  if  misunder- 
standings are  to  be  avoided,  for  the  interpreters  whom 
travellers  who  do  not  possess  this  necessary  qualification 
have  to  fall  back  upon  are  the  cause  of  endless  trouble 
both  with  officials  and  people.  They  come  from  a  class 
who  have  picked  up  their  English  amidst  the  doubtful 
surroundings  of  the  Treaty  Coast  Ports,  are  apt  to  assume 
an  unwarranted  authority  under  the  shadow  of  extra- 
territoriality, tyrannise  over  inferiors,  accept  unblushingly 
bribes  from  officials,  and  bring  their  employers  into  bad 
odour  with  rich  and  poor  alike.  Thus  one  may  say  that 
the  traveller  in  the  Celestial  Empire  was,  until  within  the 
last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  not  exposed  to  any 
serious  danger,  and  that,  with  trade  steadily  increasing, 
intercourse  between  Europeans  and  Chinese  gave  promise 
of  developing  into  friendship,  as  much  as  there  can  ever 
be  between  people  of  such  different  habits,  customs  and 
beliefs.  Whence  then  the  change  that  since  1890  has 
come  over  the  spirit  of  the  scene  ?  Let  us  study  for  once 
the  Chinese  view  of  the  question. 

The  officials  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  one 
chief  cause,  but  not  the  sole  cause,  of  the  spread  of  ill- 
feehng  towards  "  Foreigners  "  is  the  sudden  and  enormous 
increase  in  missionary  activity  that  developed  in  the 
'eighties,  and  produced  the  numerous  riots  in  the  Yangtse 
Valley  in  the  early  'nineties.  They  lament  the  fact  that 
these  riots  cost  them  heavy  indemnities,  although  a  settle- 
ment was  effected  and  quiet  was  restored  with  little  dis- 
turbance to  trade,  which  went  on  increasing  by  leaps  and 
bounds.     But  the  influx  of  missionaries  continued,  and  as 


MISSIONARIES    IN    CHINA  291 

trade  increased  so  did  mission  establishments,  and  unfor- 
tunately, it  must  be  said,  without  any  reflection  upon 
missionaries  personally,  these  were  carried  on  in  a  trading 
spirit.  That  is  to  say,  that  the  innumerable  societies 
from  England  and  America  and  the  Continent  of  Europe 
compete  with  one  another  as  to  who  shall  shew  the  most 
business  and  be  able  to  report  home  the  best  results. 
This  great  influx  of  missionaries,  thrust  suddenly  into 
almost  every  city  of  the  vast  Empire  by  the  Protestant 
societies,  has  not  only  disturbed  the  minds  of  the  people, 
leading  them  to  believe  that  some  great  political  move 
was  imminent,  but  has  also  stimulated  the  Cathohc 
missions,  who  already  held  the  field,  to  greater  activity. 
Not  a  town  of  any  importance  throughout  the  vast 
province  of  Szechuan  that  has  not  now  its  competing 
Protestant  and  Catholic  missions. 

The  French  Minister  demanded  and  obtained  from  the 
weak  central  government  official  rank  for  the  priests  of 
an  alien  and  detested  religion  ;  detested  because  it  is  a 
religion  that  subverts  the  whole  Chinese  social  system 
and  government ;  a  government  based  upon  the  willing 
submission  of  the  people  to  the  Emperor  as  "  Pope  " 
who  alone  offers  living  sacrifices  to  God  in  their  name, 
annually  at  the  Altar  of  Heaven  in  Peking,  while  each 
family  burns  incense  to  its  ancestors  and  to  the  Chinese 
worthies  of  old  whom  the  Emperor  has  canonised.  And 
surely  the  ancient  Emperors  and  Popes  of  China  had  as 
much  right  and  power  to  make  saints  of  the  sages  of  old, 
many  of  whom  died  for  their  emperor  and  country,  as 
have  the  Popes  of  Rome  to  make  saints  of  their  worthies. 

The  spirit  of  Buddhism  and  Confucianism  is  tolerance  : 
what  is  the  spirit  of  the  Western  religions,  now  being 
attempted  to  be  forced  upon  the  Chinese  against  their 
will,  may  be  judged  from  the  words  of  a  Jesuit  priest  in  a 
recent  scientific  work  published  by  him  in  Shanghai, 
and  treating  of  the  Great  Yangtse  River.  He  writes  in 
his  notes  upon  the  Yangtse  gorges  : — "  Here  is  a  fine 
temple,  dedicated  to  I  know  not  what  devil !    (dedie  a 


292  GLEANINGS   FROM   CHINA 

je  ne  sais  quel  diable)."  This  devil  is  a  saint  sacred,  and 
deservedly  so,  in  Chinese  eyes  ;  Kwan  fu-tse,  the  Patron 
Saint  of  the  Dynasty,  a  man  who  in  the  time  of  the  Han 
dynasty  gave  his  life  for  king  and  country — his  loyalty 
costing  him  his  life.  His  portrait  at  the  present  day 
adorns  the  reception-hall  in  most  large  business  hongs  in 
Szechuan  and  incense  is  burnt  before  it  ;  he  stands  for 
the  ideal  of  truth  and  honesty,  and  I  doubt  not  his  worship 
redounds  as  much  to  the  good  of  his  followers  as  does  that 
of  many  a  saint  before  whom  candles  are  burnt  in  the 
Catholic  churches.  The  spirit  of  Protestant  missionaries 
may  be  judged  of  by  a  quotation  from  the  work  of  one 
of  the  best  of  the  American  missionaries  in  China  :  "  In 
my  travels  I  constantly  spread  my  bed  in  Buddhist  tem- 
ples, but  I  took  very  good  care  to  keep  my  back  always 
turned  to  the  idols."  The  writer  is  a  scholar  and  superior 
to  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Protestant  missionaries  in 
intellectual  attainments ;  he  has  given  to  the  world 
valuable  works  on  China  and  on  the  Chinese  language, 
and  yet  he  shews  the  same  intolerant  spirit  that  disgraces 
the  Roman  Catholics.  And  if  the  leading  lights  of  the 
profession  use  language  like  the  above,  it  can  be  imagined 
what  is  the  attitude  of  the  less  well  educated  mass  of  the 
missionary  body.  Is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  a  literary 
people  like  the  Chinese,  proud  of  their  own  classics,  and  of 
whom  many  have  conscientiously  perused  our  Jewish 
Bible,  still  remain  sincerely  convinced  that  the  teaching  of 
their  own  sages  is  more  humane  and  quite  as  "  Christian  " 
as  is  the  teaching  brought  them  from  the  West  ? 

Well-meaning  people  at  home  subscribe  millions  and 
employ  colporteurs  to  spread  translations  of  the  Old 
Testament  broadcast  throughout  the  Empire  and  virtually 
say  to  the  Chinese,  "  These  are  our  ethics."  The  result 
is  that  the  Chinese  take  us  at  our  word,  and  say,  "  This 
accounts  for  the  fierce  conduct  of  foreign  nations  towards 
us  ever  since  we  have  permitted  intercourse  with  them. 
More  are  coming  into  the  land  every  day  :  how  can  we 
keep  them  out  ?     Unlike  ourselves  they  rely  on  force  for 


MISSIONARIES    IN    CHINA  293 

their  arguments  and  not  on  reason  !  "  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  this  reproach  is  to  a  large  extent  deserved, 
as  every  unprejudiced  student  of  the  history  of  our  inter- 
course with  China  cannot  fail  to  admit.  We  force  China 
to  admit  our  people  of  every  class  to  trade  and  travel 
throughout  the  country,  and  that  under  the  privilege  of 
extra-territoriality  which  practically  leaves  them  uncon- 
trolled by  any  power  but  their  own  impulses  good  or  bad, 
while  in  America  and  in  British  colonies,  not  to  speak  of 
France  and  Russia,  the  Chinese  are  excluded  or  only 
grudgingly  admitted  under  a  heavy  poll-tax.  Is  this  the 
"  freedom  of  intercourse  "  we  are  for  ever  preaching  to 
the  Chinese  ? 

The  missionaries  and  their  supporters  reply  : — "  We 
have  our  marching  orders  and  these  we  obey  without 
questioning.  Whatever  may  be  your  views  as  to  the 
political  expediency  of  our  efforts,  whether  you  be  con- 
vinced or  not  that  our  creed  is  literally  true,  and  not  only 
this  but  that  it  is  the  only  true  creed,  we,  as  apostles  of 
Christ,  have  to  act  as  the  apostles  of  old  did,  and  spread 
our  religion  by  every  means  in  our  power,  regardless  of 
consequences."  But  to  this  argument  the  Chinese  may 
well  answer  : — "  Our  sacred  Ancestor,  Pope  and  Emperor, 
Kang-hi,  in  the  last  century  issued  an  edict,  known  as 
*  The  Sacred  Edict,'  and  which  is  read  to  the  people  in  all 
the  Confucian  temples  throughout  the  Empire  twice  a 
month,  ordering  the  people  to  reverence  the  Sage  Confucius 
and  not  to  be  led  away  by  strange  doctrines,  including 
Christianity."  Thus  the  Chinese  have  equally  their 
divine  orders,  which  conflict  diametrically  with  the  divine 
orders  of  the  missionary,  and  without  more  goodwill  and 
true  Christian  feeling  on  both  sides  than  appears  to  be 
compatible  with  religious  controversy  in  all  ages,  unrest, 
revolution  and  war  are  the  necessary  result.  Tantum 
rdigio  potuit  suadere  malorum. 

It  is  true  that  Buddhism,  a  foreign  religion  imported 
from  the  West,  has  taken  root  in  China  without  any  politi- 
cal  disturbance,  but  Buddhism  stands  upon   a   footing 


294  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

entirely  different  from  Christianity.  Its  original  apostles, 
now  canonised  as  the  Eighteen  Lohan,  did  not  come  into 
China  under  the  aegis  of  extra-territoriahty ;  they  had 
to  submit  to  the  laws  of  the  country,  and  as  a  symbol  of 
their  allegiance  to  the  Emperor — God's  representative 
on  earth,  the  Tien-tse  or  Son  of  Heaven — in  every  Bud- 
dhist temple  stands  a  tablet  of  the  "  Wan  sui,"  the 
reigning  Emperor  and  God's  Vice-regent,  to  whom  incense 
is  burnt  and  reverence  paid  along  with  that  given  to  the 
Buddhist  divinities.  Farther,  the  Chinese  Government 
claim  a  control,  exercised  through  the  medium  of  the 
local  magistrate,  over  all  religious  institutions  throughout 
the  empire. 

The  law  of  mortmain  is  strictly  enforced  and  three  hun- 
dred years  ago  the  addition  of  any  more  land  to  that  then 
held  by  the  numerous  monasteries  spread  throughout 
China  was  forbidden.  But  the  Christians,  by  the  treaties 
which  give  us  extra-territoriality,  set  this  law  at  defiance, 
and  to  this  day  the  Catholic  Missions  are  adding  field  to 
field  and  house  to  house  at  a  rate  that  will  ere  very  long 
make  them  owners  of  the  lands  of  the  all  too  numerous 
thriftless  families  in  China.  Their  revenues  increase  stead- 
ily as  must  do  the  revenues  of  a  society  of  celibates  having 
no  other  family  claims  than  those  of  Mother  Church.  The 
heavy  indemnities  enforced  as  compensation  for  the 
numerous  riots,  caused  by  their  deserved  unpopularity, 
have  been  cleverly  expended  in  the  purchase  of  landed 
estates,  and  thus  each  local  disturbance,  often  due  solely 
to  the  arrogant  conduct  of  the  Catholic  converts  them- 
selves, directly  benefits  the  Church.  Under  the  Treaties 
American  and  other  foreign  merchants  in  China  are 
debarred  from  acquiring  Chinese  territory  outside  the 
Treaty  ports,  but  missionaries  are  exempt  from  this  clause, 
and  hence  we  have  instances  of  foreign  merchants  owning 
land  and  mines  in  China  under  cover  of  their  being  mis- 
sionary premises.  That  this  state  of  things  is  gall  and 
bitterness  to  the  native  officials  can  be  easily  understood  ; 
while  the  people  feel  the  pinch  in  losing  the  former  contri- 


MISSIONARIES    IN    CHINA  295 

butions  of  their  fellow-citizens  to  public  works,  festivities, 
guilds  and  institutions,  all  of  which  are  connected  directly 
or  indirectly  with  what  are  called  idolatrous  institutions^ 
and  so  are  taboo  to  the  Christian  convert.  Many  of 
these  so-called  idolatrous  practices  are  of  the  simplest 
nature  and  innocent  in  the  extreme,  such  as  lighting  a 
stick  of  incense  to  the  worship  of  heaven  and  earth,  say, 
to  the  Spirit  of  all-pervading  Nature,  upon  sitting  down 
to  a  feast.  The  Government  of  China  being  essentially 
democratic,  the  village  communities  governing  themselves 
by  their  own  elected  representatives,  assessments  for 
public  purposes  are  in  reality  voluntary.  All  local  business 
is  settled  at  feasts  in  which,  they  being  classed  by  the 
missionaries  as  idolatrous.  Christian  converts  cannot  join. 
Much  misconception  in  regard  to  the  corruption  and 
fraud  in  all  Chinese  combined  effort,  govermental  and 
municipal,  is  due  to  the  fact  that  our  chief  authorities 
on  Chinese  life  and  customs  are  missionaries.  Merchants 
and  officials  from  the  West  are  too  busy  with  their  own 
work  to  have  time  to  spare  to  study  the  intimate  life  of 
the  people  amidst  whom  they  dwell,  while  the  almost 
invincible  barrier  of  the  language  debars  them  from 
social  intercourse  with  natives  of  the  country,  even  if 
they  had  the  leisure  and  inclination  to  associate  with  them. 
The  missionary,  on  the  other  hand,  has  to  learn  the  lan- 
guage as  one  of  his  chief  duties,  but  he  is  also  tempted  to 
shew  the  need  of  his  existence  by  proving  that  the  Chinese 
are  so  utterly  bad  that  without  his  teaching  their  reform 
is  hopeless.  Hence  an  unconquerable  tendency  in  all 
missionary  books  on  China  and  the  Chinese  to  represent 
the  country  and  people  in  its  worst  light  and  to  ignore  the 
many  points  in  their  civilisation  in  which  they  can  shew 
Christian  nations  an  example  to  be  followed.  This 
unconscious  bias  on  the  part  of  missionary  writers  is 
strikingly  exemplified  in  one  of  the  cleverest  studies  of 
Chinese  character  published,  the  Chinese  Characteristics 
of  the  Rev.  Arthur  Smith.  How  would  our  Western 
Civilisation    appear   in    print  if    all    its    shadows    were 


296  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

darkened  and  its   lights   omitted   by   the   brush   of  the 
painter  ? 

While  thus  criticising  missionary  effort,  no  one  can  be 
blind  to  the  good  side  of  the  work  done  by  missions,  both 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  in  medicine,  in  education,  and  in 
philanthropic  work  generally.  Ignorance  of  other  civilisa- 
tions than  their  own  is  tiie  great  hindrance  of  the  Chinese 
to  that  progress  which,  since  the  Renaissance,  and  after  an 
interval  of  a  thousand  years  of  such  chaos  and  brutality 
as  even  the  early  Chinese  annals  do  not  exhibit,  has 
entirely  transformed  the  West  during  the  last  five  hundred 
years.  And  this  ignorance  missionaries,  more  than  any 
other  class,  have  done  their  best  to  dispel.  Newspapers, 
established  by  Europeans,  have  likewise  had  their  share 
in  acquainting  the  Chinese  with  the  existence  of  the  great 
nations  of  the  West  and  the  movement  going  on  amongst 
them.  But  the  best  work  has  undoubtedly  been  effected 
by  the  educational  establishments  of  the  missionaries,  in 
which  Chinese  youth  have  been  trained  in  Western  know- 
ledge and  that  without  compelling  them  to  subscribe  to 
the  Christian  faith.  By  waiving  this  condition,  the 
missionaries  have  succeeded  in  inducing  parents  among 
the  upper  classes  of  Chinese  to  send  their  sons  to  foreign 
colleges  to  be  trained,  for  the  sake  of  the  more  practical 
education  they  there  receive  than  it  would  be  possible 
for  any  purely  Chinese  tutor  to  afford  them.  The  majority 
of  the  young  men  thus  trained  do  not  become  Christians, 
but  their  natural  anti-foreign  prejudices  are  broken  down, 
and,  as  time  goes  on,  a  ferment  is  being  introduced  into 
the  land  which  will  slowly  leaven  the  present  dense  mass 
of  Chinese  ignorance  and  heighten  their  ideals.  Fore- 
most in  this  good  work  are  the  missionaries  of  the  American 
Episcopal  Church,  whose  educational  establishment,  situa- 
ted in  the  suburbs  of  Shanghai,  is  a  model  for  all  similar 
work.  Other  missionary  societies,  both  British  and 
American,  are  actively  engaged  in  the  same  way  throughout 
the  chief  cities  in  the  empire,  and  the  future  result  cannot 
fail  to  be  a  widespread  reaction  against  the  present  Chinese 


MISSIONARIES    IN    CHINA  297 

system  of  spending  years  in  memorising  the  classics  of 
two  thousand  years  ago  and  writing  conventional  essays 
upon  them  in  the  examinations  for  official  rank.  The 
new  leaven  had,  it  is  well  known,  so  far  penetrated  the 
upper  crust  of  Chinese  conservatism  that,  in  1898,  the 
young  emperor,  Kwang-hsii,  issued  an  edict  introducing 
Western  science  into  the  examinations.  This  and  his 
many  other  similar  edicts  were  revoked  by  the  Empress's 
coup  d'etat  in  September  of  that  year,  and  the  ever 
present  anti-foreign  feeling  in  the  Manchus  and  in  the 
conservative  Chinese  was  thereby  accentuated  and  is 
mainly  responsible  for   the   fanatical  outbreak  of  1900. 

It  is  the  old  story  of  putting  new  wine  into  old  bottles, 
and  although  the  missionary  societies  can  but  be  com- 
mended for  their  devotion  to  the  work  of  elevating  the 
Chinese  race,  yet  it  cannot  be  gainsaid  that  the  late  up- 
heaval is  very  largely  due  to  missionary  effort.  Farther, 
the  new  ideas  of  the  young  emperor  and  his  friends  upset 
the  reactionaries  and  maddened  them  into  sanguinary 
conspirators  ;  these  took  advantage  of  the  ever  underlying 
hatred  of  Christianity  and  its  converts  latent  in  the 
common  people  to  bring  over  the  secret  anti-dynastic 
societies  to  their  side  by  promising  them  the  plunder  of 
the  Christian  communities  throughout  the  empire.  These 
unscrupulous  and  bloodthirsty  politicians  in  high  places 
have  since  been  brought  to  book,  and,  with  their  malign 
influence  removed,  added  to  the  sobering  action  of  late 
events  upon  our  missionaries,  peace  and  quiet  in  China 
will  probably  be  permanently  restored. 

The  Shanghai  Society  for  the  Diffusion  of  Christian  and 
General  Knowledge,  now  called  The  Christian  Literature 
Society  of  China,  which  is  mainly  occupied  in  translating 
the  most  advanced  Christian  and  philosophical  works  of 
the  West  into  Chinese  and  in  distributing  them  throughout 
the  country,  is  likewise  carrying  on  a  great  educational 
work  and  steadily  influencing  Chinese  thought,  but 
whether  they  will  at  the  same  time  succeed  in  converting 
the  Chinese  to  Christianity  seems  doubtful ;    as  with  the 


298  GLEANINGS    FROM   CHINA 

natives  of  British  India,  the  Chinese  are  fast  coming 
to  value  our  superior  knowledge  and  to  profit  by  it  without 
accepting  the  Christian  teaching  connected  with  it.  And 
the  reason  I  take  to  be  that  the  old  missionary  idea  of 
making  tabula  rasa  of  the  old  religions  is  a  totally  mis- 
taken one.  Until  missionaries  admit  that  Confucius, 
like  Christ,  was  a  great  teacher,  whose  teaching  did  little 
less  to  civilise  the  ancient  semi-barbarous  Chinese  than 
did  Christianity,  though  far  more  slowly,  to  civilise  Europe : 
until  they  admit  that  the  introduction  of  Buddhism 
softened  the  fierce  passions  of  Asiatics  as  did  Christ's 
teaching  those  of  our  ancestors  ;  and  until  they  accept 
the  corollary  that  these  Asiatic  religions  are  worthy  of 
reverence  and  not  necessarily  to  be  cast  out  neck  and  crop 
by  the  introduction  of  Christianity, — I  doubt  if  the 
Chinese  people  can  ever  be  induced  to  become  Christian 
any  more  than  can  their  enlightened  neighbours  the 
Japanese,  To  the  philosophical  mind  it  would  appear 
to  be  a  self-evident  proposition  that,  only  by  imposing 
Christian  ethics  as  a  superstructure  on  the  existing  older 
religious  foundations,  can  Asiatics  as  a  body  be  expected 
to  become  Christian.  Dogma  has  had  its  day  in  Europe, 
and  it  is  assuredly  a  work  of  supererogation  to  attempt 
now  to  impose  it  on  the  Chinese.  Hence  I  regard  it  as  a 
misfortune  that  so  much  missionary  effort  is  expended 
in  attempting  to  realise  a  vain  ideal,  the  result  being  the 
alienation  of  the  educated  classes  in  China  from  that 
Christian  teaching,  in  the  genuine  spread  of  which  lies 
the  hope  of  peace  and  brotherly  love  between  nations, 
as  much  in  the  West  as  in  the  East.  The  most  effective 
propagandism  in  China  would  we  all  know  be  the  Christian 
conduct  of  the  lay  "  foreigner,"  too  generally  ignored  by 
all  but  the  North  China  Mission. 

If  we  place  missionary  activity,  as  well  Protestant  as 
Catholic,  in  the  forefront  amongst  the  causes  of  the  late 
suppressed  unrest  and  anti-foreign  feeling  amongst  the 
Chinese,  we  must  admit  that  the  torch  was  appHed  to  the 
mine  by  political  action  and  notably  by  the  seizure  of 


MISSIONARIES    IN    CHINA  299 

Tsingtao  by  Germany  in  the  spring  of  1898.  The  Boxer 
movement  started  in  Shantung,  the  province  of  which 
Tsingtao  is  the  port,  and  was  a  not  unnatural  reply  to  a 
seizure  of  territory  without  even  the  form  of  preliminary 
negotiation,  and  in  a  time  of  profound  peace.  Nor 
can  we  justly  blame  the  Empress  and  the  high  officials 
of  China  for  originally  countenancing  what  was  eminently 
a  patriotic  movement.  Their  fault  was,  more  Sinensi, 
in  failing  to  organise  the  movement  and  keep  it  in  bounds, 
until  they  should  have  been  able  to  make  a  formal  declara- 
tion of  war  in  the  event  of  farther  foreign  aggression. 
But  here  come  into  play  the  ignorance  and  arrogance  of 
the  Manchu  rulers  of  China.  Unversed  in  the  civilised 
methods  of  attacking  one's  neighbour,  they  thought  to 
harry  the  detested  foreigner  out  of  the  country  by  a  few 
exemplary  murders  and  a  strong  shew  of  well-armed 
force.  And  there  is  little  doubt  that,  had  they  kept  the 
Boxers  in  hand  and  postponed  the  outbreak  until  every- 
thing was  in  readiness,  the  Chinese  might  have  achieved 
an  early  success  much  as  did  the  Boers  over  England  by 
their  similarly  long  prepared  outbreak.  That  Europe 
must  conquer  in  the  end  the  ignorant  Chinese  could 
not  be  expected  to  anticipate.  Like  the  Boers,  they 
relied  upon  distance  and  dissensions  amongst  the 
"  Warring  States"  as,  harking  back  to  the  times  of  the 
Chow  dynasty,  500  B.C.,  the  Chinese  venture  to  designate 
Europe. 

It  was  indeed  a  piece  of  good  fortune  for  us  residents 
in  China  that  the  Boxers  could  not  be  held  back 
and  that  the  outbreak  occurred  four  months  earlier  than 
the  Empress  intended,  for  lamentable  as  were  the  dreadful 
massacres  that  then  took  place,  there  would  undoubtedly 
have  been  ten  times  the  actual  number  of  victims  had  the 
Chinese  organisation  been  as  complete  as  it  was  intended 
to  make  it.  Possibly  this  misfire  has  proved  the  salva- 
tion of  China,  for,  had  the  Manchu  scheme  been  carried 
out  in  its  entirety,  nothing  could  have  saved  the  country 
from  being  partitioned  up  amongst  the  aggrieved  Powers. 


300  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

As  it  is,  a  mutual  self-denying  ordinance  has  been  agreed 
upon,  and  we  residents  in  China,  while  earnestly  deprecat- 
ing partition,  now  stand  in  fear  of  too  little  being  done, 
and  that  neither  will  the  real  culprits,  the  leaders,  be 
brought  to  punishment  nor  will  effectual  guarantees  be 
taken  for  the  due  protection  of  foreign  residents  in  the 
interior  in  the  future.  For  it  is  not  enough  to  insert 
favourable  conditions  in  a  Treaty  :  we  must  put  into 
power  people  wiUing  to  carry  them  out.  The  Allied 
Powers  had  in  China,  in  the  North  and  in  Shanghai,  troops 
sufficient  to  sweep  the  country,  if  needed,  but  as  these 
were  not  utilised  for  a  military  promenade  through  the 
country,  with  the  double  object  of  exhibiting  our  strength 
to  the  inland  Chinese  and  so  deterring  them  from  future 
attacks  on  "  foreigners "  and  of  placing  the  rightful 
emperor  on  the  throne  ;  we  can  expect  little  more  than 
a  return  to  the  status  quo  ante  :  a  truce,  broken  by  minor 
riots,  to  be  followed  by  a  fresh  armed  intervention  and 
disturbance  of  trade  ten  years  later. 

One  point,  and  one  only,  was  certain  to  be  properly 
provided  for  in  the  treaty  then  negotiated,  and  that  was 
the  indemnity.  This  payment  involved  fresh  taxation. 
At  the  moment,  the  interest  on  the  Japanese  war  loan 
absorbed  the  whole  Customs  revenue  :  other  sources  of 
revenue  were  the  Salt  excise,  the  Likin  (octroi  and  transit 
duties),  and  the  land-tax.  The  first  of  these  was  already 
mortgaged  for  the  service  of  foreign  loans,  while  the  latter 
barely  provided  for  the  current  expenses  of  the  Govern- 
ment, imperial  and  local.  To  arrange  for  farther  taxation, 
a  financial  reorganisation  of  the  resources  of  the  country 
was  necessary.  The  Chinese  themselves  had  not  the 
experience  nor  the  capacity  requisite  ;  foreign  agents 
should  have  been  employed,  and  foreign  agency  is  too 
expensive  for  an  Oriental  country,  as  we  see  in  India. 
The  foreign  debt  is  a  gold  debt  and  has  to  be  met  with  a 
depreciated  silver  currency  :  the  actual  debt  amounted  to 
some  £60,000,000,  and  the  indemnities  to  be  paid  would 
more  than  double  tliis  sum.    China,  like  India,  is  a  land  of 


MISSIONARIES    IN    CHINA  301 

small  farmers  and  workmen,  living  mainly  from  hand  to 
mouth  ;  the  rich  are  few  and  far  between  ;  there  is  little 
accumulated  wealth,  no  savings  banks  and  little  means  of 
investing  savings  except  in  the  purchase  of  land  and  in 
usury.  Thus  it  seemed  as  if  foreign  control  would  become 
an  absolute  necessity  if  China  were  to  meet  her  old  and 
new  obligations  punctually  ;  and  foreign  financial  control 
must,  of  necessity,  lead  up  to  constantly  increasing 
interference  with  the  details  of  government.  ^  Either, 
then,  the  nations  concerned  must  agree  to  some  kind  of 
international  control  similar  to  the  old  condominium 
exercised  in  Egypt  by  France  and  England  previous  to  the 
Arabi  rebelhon,  or  they  must  agree  to  separate  control  in 
agreed-upon  spheres  of  influence.  We  thus  seemed  to 
have  partition  within  measurable  distance,  however 
strongly  the  Powers  might  protest  their  disinterestedness. 
The  only  sure  way  out  of  this  alternative  would  be  for 
the  Powers  to  forego  any  military  indemnity  and  each  bear 
its  own  expenses,  taking  a  money  indemnity  only  for  the 
actual  mercantile  and  missionary  property  destroyed. 
The  problem  seems  hopeless  as  long  as  the  Powers  are 
not  honestly  working  for  the  benefit  of  China  alone 
without  arrihre  pensee  ;  but  this  we  have  evidence  that 
more  than  one  Power  is  declining  to  do.  Are  any  of  the 
Powers  now  engaged  in  negotiation  with  China  sincerely 
opposed  to  taking  advantage  of  China's  weakness,  and 
if  so,  can  these  Powers  efficiently  oppose  the  selfish  designs 
of  the  others  ?  The  reply  is  : — Yes !  provided  that  the 
Powers,  say,  America,  Great  Britain,  and  Japan,  whose 
object  is  purely  trade,  hold  firm  together  in  face  of 
Powers  who,  if  not  now  desirous  of  partitioning  the 
country,  would  yet  render  it  so  weak  that  partition 
should  be  inevitable.     If  Russia  can  be  constrained  to 

^  We  have  seen  in  1909  the  foreign  protest  against  the  dismissal 
from  the  highest  offices  of  Yuan  Shih-kai,  trusted  with  reason  by 
foreigners  in  China  for  the  administration  of  the  foreign  debt,  but 
with  equal  reason  distrusted  by  the  Regent  of  China  as  having 
caused  the  imprisonment  and  deposition  from  power  of  his  brother, 
the  late  Emperor. — a.  e.  n.  l. 


302  GLEANINGS   FROM    CHINA 

"  protect  "  nothing  but  her  trans-Siberian  railway  ;  if 
France  would  give  up  the  strengthening  of  the  imperium 
in  imperio  formed  by  the  agents  of  the  Papacy  and  content 
herself  with  the  industrial  concessions  which  her  officials 
have  so  painstakingly  worked  for  ;  if  Germany  would 
be  satisfied  with  her  new  port  of  Tsingtao  and  claim  no 
monopoly  of  the  hinterland — we  might  hope  for  perman- 
ent peace  in  China.  But  these  are  large  ifs.  Can  they 
be  converted  into  facts  ?  ^ 

Good  people  in  the  home  countries,  who  give  their 
money  to  the  support  of  missions  in  China  are  not  gener- 
ally aware  of  the  fact  that  missionaries  are  not  under 
Chinese  law,  and,  still  farther,  are  under  no  obligation  to 
submit  themselves  to  that  unwritten  Chinese  "  custom  " 
which  is  even  more  than  law.  This  exceptional  position 
missionaries,  as  all  other  "  foreigners,"  owe  to  "  extra- 
territoriality." When  once  away  from  the  control  of 
their  respective  consuls  at  the  Treaty  Ports,  missionaries 
are  practically  free  to  act  as  they  think  fit,  and  it  says 
much  for  the  sense  of  honour  amongst  the  majority  that 
this  freedom  is  not  abused  more  than  it  is.  The  worst  and 
most  glaring  abuse  is  the  support  of  their  converts  in  civil 
suits  before  the  Chinese  officials.  It  is  in  human  nature  to 
help  your  friends,  and  when  that  help  means  the  support 
of  a  powerful  foreign  Government  at  its  back,  he  must  be 
an  exceptionally  strong  mandarin  who  will  not  favour  the 
convert.  The  French  Government  has  now  compelled 
the  Chinese  to  give  the  Catholic  priests  official  rank  ; 
a  Bishop  ranks  with  a  Viceroy,  rides  in  a  Viceroy's  green 
sedan  with  a  corresponding  retinue,  and  so  on  through  the 
hierarchy  downwards  to  the  most  humble  parish  priest.  ^ 

That  such  power  should  not  be  abused  is  against  the 
teaching  of  all  previous  history  of  the  relations  between 
Church  and  State.     The  remedy  for  this  gross  anomaly  is 

*  In    1910   this   seems   to   have   been   measurably   realised. — 

A.  E.   N.  L. 

*  This  is  now  withdrawn,  having  been  found  to  work  badly. 
The  Protestant  Missionaries  from  the  first  refused  to  have  rank 
thrust  upon  them,  so  their  position  is  unaltered. — a.  e.  n.  l. 


,£3 

u 


MISSIONARIES    IN   CHINA  303 

one  proposed  some  years  ago  by  some  of  the  more  enlight- 
ened priests  themselves,  viz.,  that  the  Pope  should  appoint 
a  Legate  to  the  Chinese  Court  who  should  alone  have 
the  right  of  interfering  in  religious  affairs.  This  plan 
would  be  far  more  favourable  to  the  spread  of  Catho- 
licism, but  it  would  deprive  the  Governments  concerned  of 
the  privilege  of  interference  with  China  which  their  pre- 
sent political  protection  affords  them;  such  pretexts  as 
enabled  Germany  to  seize  Tsingtao  and  France  to  obtain 
valuable  mining  concessions  in  the  West.  The  Protestant 
missionaries  do  not  give  a  similar  handle  to  their  Govern- 
ments, but  they  too  act  sometimes  in  defiance  of  official 
advice  and  rouse  the  opposition  of  the  gentry,  who  form 
the  most  influential  class  in  China,  and  whom  the  officials 
proper  are  forced  to  consider  and  consult  in  all  they  do. 
I  do  not  deny  that  many  of  our  Protestant  missionaries 
display  exemplary  tact  :  what  I  complain  of  is  the 
opportunity  for  offence  that  extra-territoriality  confers 
upon  those  who  are  wanting  in  tact  and  in  consideration 
for  the  feelings  of  the  people  upon  whom  their  presence 
has  been  forced. 

We  have  waived  the  imposition  of  extra-territoriality 
upon  the  Japanese  and  that  without  the  dire  results  that 
were  predicted  when  this  concession  to  Japanese  pride 
and  independence  was  made.  The  Chinese  are  no  less 
proud  and  hardly  less  civilised  ;  I  do  not  assert  that,  in 
the  present  condition  of  the  country,  they  are  ripe  for 
the  making  of  a  similar  concession ;  I  only  assert  that 
the  retention  of  extra-territoriality  is  a  continually 
open  sore  and  our  relations  will  never  be  placed  upon 
a  really  cordial  footing  until  the  time  has  arrived  for 
its  abolition  ;  and  that  until  it  is  abolished  it  behoves  our 
Governments  to  see  that  it  is  not  abused.  This  is 
not  easy ;  I  have  known  vice,  that  well-meaning 
Chinese  officials  attempted  to  suppress,  hardily  upheld 
under  the  aegis  of  extra-territoriality,  this  aegis  being 
given  by  a  quondam  foreign  official  for  a  quid  pro  quo. 
We  justly  censure  the  Chinese  for  their  gross  breach  of 


304  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

international  law  and  usage  in  their  recent  conduct  in  the 
north,  but  it  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  that  we  have 
practically  never  given  the  benefit  of  international  law 
to  the  Chinese  in  our  dealings  with  them.  The  crime  of 
the  Chinese  has  been  their  weakness  and  the  absurd 
arrogance  accompanying  it  ;  and  bitterly  have  they 
suffered  in  consequence.  Setting  aside  extra-territoriality, 
which  has  been  and  is  still  an  evil  necessity,  we  have 
forced  the  Chinese  to  admit  our  citizens  freely,  however 
obnoxious  they  be,  while  we  have  kept  the  hardworking 
Chinese  out  of  our  own  countries,  just  because  they  work 
too  hard  ;  we  have  forced  them  to  admit  our  manufac- 
tures under  a  five  per  cent,  tariff,  while  we  allow  ourselves 
to  put  as  high  tariffs  as  we  like  on  their  goods  without 
consulting  them.  We  collect  their  Customs  dues  for  them 
and  pay  away  the  proceeds  in  interest  on  the  foreign  loans 
our  aggressions  have  compelled  them  to  incur,  and  we 
have  in  the  past  been  mean  enough  to  compel  them  to 
admit  all  articles  of  European  and  American  consumption 
free,  in  order  to  make  the  life  of  the  untaxed  "  foreigner  " 
in  China  still  easier  than  it  was.  If  one  quality  stands 
out  in  the  Chinese  character  it  is  their  sense  of  justice,  and 
it  is  this  national  characteristic  that  leads  me  to  believe 
that  a  reformed  China  will  one  day  be  a  safe  country  to 
live  in  even  under  purely  Chinese  law.  Once  let  them 
be  masters  in  their  own  house  and  their  suspicion  of  our 
motives  would  cease.  Suspicion  begets  fear  and  fear 
begets  violence,  such  as  we  saw  in  the  north  in  1900. 
But  this  violence  would  not  have  broken  out  but  for  the 
stimulus  given  it  and  the  support  it  received  from  the 
reactionary  Manchu  rulers,  as  ignorant  as  they  are  arro- 
gant, and  themselves  in  fear  that  the  dynasty  was  threat- 
ened. China  is  not  the  only  country  in  which  success 
against  the  hated  foreigner  may  plant  a  tottering  dynasty 
firmly  on  the  throne,  and  the  Manchu  dynasty  has  been 
tottering  ever  since  a  rude  shock  to  its  existence  was  given 
by  the  great  Christian  Taiping  rebellion  fifty  years  ago  : 
a  rebellion  that  might  have  succeeded  and  transformed 


MISSIONARIES    IN   CHINA  305 

China,  as  did  the  revolution  of  1868  in  Japan,  but  for  our 
well-meant  interference  in  support  of  constituted  author- 
ity. The  Taiping  Rebellion  led  to  the  estabhshment  of 
"  likin  or  octroi  duties,"  to  the  sale  of  offices,  to  a  falling 
revenue,  and  so  to  unpaid  troops,  illpaid  magistrates,  and 
the  general  financial  corruption  under  which  the  land  is 
now  groaning  and  which  we  are  doing  our  best  to  aggravate 
still  farther.  The  time  has  not  yet  come  for  the  Chinese 
to  be  given  the  freedom  which  our  Governments  have 
spontaneously  accorded  to  the  Japanese,  but  it  must 
come  some  day  if  the  Chinese  are  to  be  brought  really  to 
welcome  our  presence  in  their  country. 

The  excesses  of  the  Boxers,  their  atrocious  murders, 
not  of  "  foreigners  "  alone,  the  horrible  tortures  they  have 
inflicted  upon  their  victims,  have  given  the  outside  world 
a  shock  similar  to  that  given  by  the  excesses  of  the  reign 
of  terror  in  France  to  the  rest  of  the  civilised  world  a 
hundred  years  ago  ;  and  the  Chinese  are  looked  upon  as 
a  nation  of  savages  in  consequence  ;  yet  no  one  reproaches 
the  French  as  a  nation,  and  who  remembers  our  own  witch- 
burning  and  the  thumb-screws  of  our  Courts  of  Justice 
(so-called)  ?  Nor,  I  regret  to  say,  has  the  behaviour  of 
a  large  portion  of  the  allied  troops,  sent  to  subdue  the 
Boxer  Rebellion,  been  any  better  than  that  of  the  Boxers 
themselves.  It  is  a  dreadful  pity  that  such  should  have 
been  the  case  and  that  an  opportunity  for  exhibiting  to 
the  Chinese  the  superior  humanity  of  Christian  warfare 
should  have  been  lost.  Chinese,  who  have  escaped  from 
Peking  and  Tientsin,  tell  most  harrowing  tales  of  the 
destruction  of  their  homes  and  of  the  loss  of  wives  and 
children  through  Boxers  and  our  soldiery  alike.  Here 
again  is  a  case  of  the  more  civilised  Christian  Powers  being 
unable  to  control  the  conduct  of  their  semi-barbarous 
allies, — Christians  so-called.  Will  these  same  civilised 
Powers  be  able  to  control  the  others  in  their  future 
political  treatment  of  China  without  a  threat  of  force  ? 

I  may  sum  up  by  saying  that  in  my  experience  with  all 
classes  of  Chinese  and  in  all  parts  of  China  :   in  business. 


3o6  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

in  pleasure,  in  travel,  in  war  and  in  peace  :  with  rebel 
leaders  and  their  rabble  armies,  with  Imperialist  generals 
and  their  ill-disciplined  troops  :  with  literary  pedants  : 
with  shrewd  bankers,  clever  merchants,  hardy  sailors 
and  boatmen  and  illiterate  coolies  :  steadily  comparing 
our  two  civilisations,  ever  modifying  foregone  conclusions 
and  never  reaching  the  comfort  of  absolute  conviction  : 
my  conclusion  is,  that  the  average  Chinaman  is  more 
forbearing,  more  tolerant  and  in  his  social  relations  as 
much,  if  not  more,  Christian  than  the  average  Westerner. 
He  is  restive  under  discipline  and  lacks  the  high  qualities 
of  courage  and  the  virtues  we  class  under  chivalry,  having 
apparently  sadly  degenerated  in  this  respect  from  the 
standard  of  ancient  times  :  he  has  little  regard  for  truth, 
no  conception  of  science  and  hence  not  the  faintest  appre- 
ciation of  what  we  denominate  as  scientific  accuracy ;  for 
which  defects  we  justly  despise  the  Chinese,  even  where 
we  do  justice  to  his  qualities.  Although  he  has  not  risen 
to  the  high  ideals  of  the  best  of  our  race,  he  has  not  fallen 
as  low  as  the  worst.  But  suspicion  and  jealousy,  which 
are  innate  in  the  Chinese  character,  will  ever  prevent  their 
combining  to  form  a  Yellow  Peril,  unless  conquered  and 
led  by  European  leaders  as  are  the  Indians  to-day  by  the 
British. 

The  Chinese  are  a  highly  civilised  people,  httle  less 
civilised  in  their  way  than  we  are  in  our  way  ;  and  deserve 
the  same  consideration,  without  regard  to  their  military 
weakness,  that  we  demand  for  ourselves.  The  individual 
Chinaman,  it  must  ever  be  borne  in  mind,  varies  in 
disposition  and  character  just  as  much  as  we  do.  To  a 
new  arrival  in  China  all  Chinese  look  cast  in  one  mould, 
and  it  takes  him  some  years  to  learn  to  differentiate  them  ; 
so,  to  superficially-minded  Chinese,  do  we  Westerners 
appear  all  alike  repulsive  and  ill-mannered.  Generalisa- 
tions are  dangerous,  yet  I  think  I  may  fairly  say  :  The 
upper  classes  are  lamentably  effeminate  and  possess  all 
the  vices  that  luxury  and  effeminacy  bring  about ;  the 
middle    classes    lack    the    energy    and    initiative    that 


MISSIONARIES    IN    CHINA  307 

distinguish  the  man  of  European  descent,  but  surpass 
him  in  plodding  industry.  The  lowest  class,  the 
peasants  and  the  coolies,  that  here  as  elsewhere 
form  the  bulk  of  the  population,  have  the  virtues 
and  vices  that  attend  poverty  all  the  world  over. 
They  equal  the  European  in  endurance,  surpass  him  in 
the  "  manners  "  we  associate  with  breeding,  and  fall 
behind  in  mental  resource.  In  adaptability  to  circum- 
stances, in  faithful  service  to  a  sympathetic  employer,  and 
in  the  power  of  continuous  bodily  labour  on  coarse 
monotonous  fare,  they  are  unequalled. 

Matthew  Arnold  sums  up  the  result  of  our  modern 
Western  civilisation  as  "  An  upper  class  materialised, 
a  middle  class  vulgarised,  and  a  lower  class  brutalised." 
Be  this  a  true,  if  exaggerated  picture  of  Europe  and 
America  to-day,  then  we  can  hardly  deny  that  we  may 
almost  have  as  much  to  learn  from  the  despised  Chinese 
as  we  have  to  teach  them  ;  and  it  is  conceivable  that  a 
time  may  yet  come  when  we  may  be  indebted  to  the  East 
for  sending  forth  missionaries  to  reform  the  West. 

In  the  meantime  those  of  us  who  have  lived  in  the 
interior  are  indebted  to  missionaries  for  so  much,  that  the 
benefits  the  latter  render  their  fellow-countrjnnen  would 
themselves  seem  to  justify  their  self-chosen  exile,  whilst 
we  know  and  can  testify  that  every  good  work  that  has 
been  started  during  the  last  fifty  years  for  the  advance- 
ment of  the  Chinese  people  has  been  originated,  and  for 
the  most  part  has  been  carried  out  by  missionaries, 
including  that  Society  to  which  the  Progress  Party  in 
China  owes  its  inception  and  which  is  most  largely  assisted 
by  laymen,  the  Christian  Literature  Society  of  China, 
formed  to  translate  and  disseminate  accounts  of  the  most 
recent  discoveries  of  science,  as  also  the  noblest  and  most 
inspiring  works  in  the  literature  of  Europe. 


CONFUCIANISM    WITH    ATTEMPTS   AT 
ECLECTICISM 

To  define  "  Confucianism  "  as  it  exists  to-day,  we 
must  go  back  to  and  endeavour  to  realise  the  times 
in  which  this  so-called  "  religion  "  originated — to  that 
marvellous  epoch  in  the  world's  intellectual  history 
when  some  five  centuries  before  the  Christian  era,  in 
three  different  regions  of  the  earth's  surface,  almost 
simultaneously  yet  quite  disconnectedly,  the  spirit  of 
enquiry  swept  as  a  wave  across  the  three  great  centres  of 
such  civilisation  as  the  human  race  in  pre-Christian  times 
had  been  able  to  attain.  It  was  in  the  fifth  century 
before  our  era  that  Socrates  and  Plato  may  be  said  to 
have  laid  down  the  foundations  of  Grecian  philosophy 
which  was  to  take  the  place  of  the  crude  mythology  of  their 
forbears  :  the  same  century  saw  in  India  an  attempted 
reform  of  the  prevailing  but  distorted  Brahmanism  of  the 
day,  and  introduced  in  its  place  a  religion  of  love  of 
one's  fellow-men,  founded  by  the  Indian  Prince  Gautama, 
known  as  Sakyamouni,  or  "  The  Buddha  ";  while  in  China 
Confucius  preached  that  reform  in  manners  and  doctrine 
which  has  changed  the  face  of  the  whole  "  Far  East," 
and  has  maintained  its  moral  influence  persistently  down 
to  the  present  day  ; — a  doctrine  familiar  to  ourselves  under 
the  term,  Confucianism. 

Confining  ourselves  to  the  fatherland  of  Confucius, 
let  us  turn  for  a  while  to  the  political  condition  of  China 
at  that  period.  The  country  was  cut  up  into  a  number 
of  "  contending  states  "  (Chan  kwo,  as  the  Chinese  style 
them) — much  as  is  Europe  in  the  present  day  ;  the  feudal 

308 


CONFUCIANISM  309 

system  was  in  full  blast  and  martial  virtue  the  only  virtue 
properly  recognised.  Writing  had  indeed  been  intro- 
duced and  the  "  tadpole  "  or  "  seal  "  characters  were 
engraved  on  stone  and  on  slips  of  bamboo,  but,  as  with 
ourselves  in  the  middle  ages,  reading  and  writing  were 
confined  to  a  learned  few  ;  the  mass  of  the  people  being 
steeped  in  ignorance.  The  learned  few  or  "  literati  " 
of  that  day  would  appear  to  have  been  composed  of  peri- 
patetic philosophers  who  travelled  from  court  to  court 
(much  as  Plato  did),  proffering  their  advice  and  counsel 
to  the  princes  of  the  time  in  exchange  for  entertainment 
of  themselves  and  their  following.  These  princes  were 
"  mighty  men  of  valour,"  scheming  and  fighting  for 
their  neighbours'  territory :  the  literati  were  valued 
mainly  as  experts  in  history  and  diplomacy  and  so  able 
to  assist  their  illiterate  patrons,  the  princes  of  their  time, 
in  their  more  or  less  nefarious  projects.  But  many  of 
these  philosophers  appear  to  have  given  perfectly  disin- 
terested advice  in  their  honest  desire  to  restrain  war  and 
promote  the  prosperity  of  the  common  people.  The 
princes  welcomed  advice  tending  to  increase  the  content- 
ment, the  wealth,  and  so  the  loyalty,  of  the  people  toward 
their  feudal  masters.  China  was  at  the  same  time  still 
nominally  an  empire,  though  the  power  of  the  imperial 
house  of  Chow  had  practically  ceased  and  the  chiefs  of 
the  ten  or  dozen  states,  each  of  about  the  area  of  England, 
into  which  China  was  then  broken  up,  fought  and  made 
peace  as  they  pleased  without  reference  to  their  feudal 
over-lord.  The  literati  of  that  time  would  seem  to  have 
been  largely  employed  negotiating  alliances,  sometimes 
as  spies,  and  again  as  intermediaries  whose  actions  could 
be  ratified  or  disavowed  as  circumstances  dictated. 

The  typical  and  boldly  outspoken  philosopher  of  whose 
speeches  the  most  complete  record  has  survived,  known 
to  us  as  Mencius,  flourished  nearly  300  years  subsequent 
to  Confucius  :  his  fearless  honesty  is  conspicuous  and 
makes  the  record  of  his  sayings  and  doings  delightful 
reading.     But  in  Mencius'  time  the  feudal  system  was 


310  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

fast  rushing  to  its  fall :  as  in  the  "  Holy  Roman  "  Empire, 
when  the  elective  emperors  no  longer,  like  Charles  V., 
were  able  to  enforce  their  decrees  with  a  strong  hand, 
their  power  ceased  to  be  respected  and  the  feudatories  of 
the  empire  were  left  to  fight  it  out  until  the  strongest  and 
most  warlike  States  finally  succeeded  in  conquering  and 
absorbing  their  weaker  rivals. 

Thus  the  analogy  between  the  condition  of  affairs 
in  the  period  of  the  "  contending  States  "  in  China — B.C. 
650  to  250 — tallies  fairly  with  the  condition  of  Central 
Europe  during  the  three  centuries  that  elapsed  from 
the  date  of  the  abdication  of  Charles  V.  to  the 
final  union  of  Germany,  under  the  leadership  of  Prussia, 
in  1870.  This  analogy  is  flattering  to  the  conceit  of 
young  China,  which  has  now  for  the  first  time  in  the 
existence  of  the  Empire  thrown  itself  with  avidity  into  the 
study  of  European  history,  and  is  thus  able  confidently 
to  aver  that  European  civilisation  is  no  less  than  2,120 
years  behind  that  of  China  :  and  that  a  real  union  of  our 
so-called  civilised  peoples  is  still  so  far  off  that,  not 
impossibly  a  third  millenium  will  have  to  be  added  before 
we  arrive  at  the  point  reached  by  China  in  centuries  when 
the  Christian  era  had  not  been  fixed  or  even  thought 
about. 

We  know  almost  as  little  really  of  the  details  of  the  hfe 
of  Confucius  as  we  do  of  the  lives  of  the  founders  of  other 
epoch-making  religions.  Like  as  with  the  founders  of 
Christianity  and  Buddhism,  Confucius  wrote  nothing,  and 
may  be  said  to  have  founded  "  Confucianism  "  uncon- 
sciously. It  was  not  until  quite  a  generation  after  his 
death  that  the  descendants  of  his  whilom  disciples 
collected  into  writing  all  they  could  remember  of  the 
sayings  and  doings  of  their  revered  Master  :  consequently 
we  must  not  accept  the  little  that  has  thus  come  down  to 
us  as  absolute  gospel  and  therefrom  make  deductions 
injurious  to  his  character,  as  some  of  our  ex  parte  writers 
would  appear  to  take  pleasure  in  doing,  with  a  view  to 
destroying  his  claim  to  the  title  of  "  The  Sage," — a  title 


CONFUCIANISM  311 

first  bestowed  upon  him  by  the  Chinese  emperor  and 
people  300  years  after  his  death.  The  Chinese,  not  un- 
naturally, accept  the  present  text  of  the  Confucian  classics 
as  literally  orthodox,  although  this  text  was  not  definitely 
fixed  until  1,400  years  after  the  death  of  "  the  Master," 
not  as  verbally  inspired,  for,  with  their  good  common 
sense,  the  Chinese  had  not  made  a  God  of  the  founder  of 
their  ethical  system.  This  text  remains,  the  sole  guide 
we  possess  to  the  life  and  sayings  of  "  the  Master,"  and 
from  it,  with  the  above  reservation,  and  bearing  in  mind 
the  fact  that  no  history  founded  on  tradition  can  be  abso- 
lutely reliable,  we  must  proceed  to  make  our  own  deduc- 
tions as  to  the  character  of  his  life  and  teaching. 

Confucius  or  "  Kung  Sheng  jen,"  i.e.,  "  Kung  the  Sage," 
is  the  title  under  which  he  has  been  canonised  and  which 
is  now  universally  applied  to  him  by  his  countrymen, 
"  Kung  "  being  his  family  name.     He  was  the  son  of  a 
military  official  in  the  province  of  Shantung,  in  North 
China  :  little  is  known  of  his  career  beyond  the  fact  that  he 
held  office  in  his  native  state  of  Lu,  that  he  was  invited  to 
the  courts  of  neighbouring  princes,  and  that  in  his  old  age 
he  lamented  that  none  would  conscientiously  follow  his 
counsels.     He  appears,  like  other  great  teachers  of  the 
period,  to  have  been  followed  from  place  to  place  by 
a  train  of  admiring  disciples.     His  teaching  embodied 
mainly  the  necessity  of  restoring  the  virtues  of  antiquity 
and  returning  to  the  manners  and  civilisation  of  a  mythical 
Golden   Age,    exemplified   in   the   reigns   of   the   model 
emperors,  Yao  and  Shun,  who  flourished  in  the  third 
millenium  B.C.     He  announced  : — "  I  teach  nothing  new  ; 
I  transmit."     Thus  he  reprobated  the  rebellious  spirit 
of  his  time  and  preached  submission  to  the  Central  Power, 
the  supreme  Chow  emperor  ;    the  Chow  dynasty  being 
then  already  effete,  and  on  its  way  to  final  extinction  250 
years  later.     He  appears  to  have  collected  and  written 
out  the  history  of  his  native  state  of  Lu, — a  bald  collection 
of  annals  going  back   250  years   only,   and  so  tersely 
expressed  that  they  have  little  or  no  interest  for  the 


312  GLEANINGS   FROM    CHINA 

European  reader,  while  they  are  revered  by  the  Chinese 
as  the  work  of  the  Sage,  and  the  work  by  which,  so  Con- 
fucius is  reported  to  have  said,  his  fame  would  go  down 
to  posterity.  This  practically  useless  contribution  to 
literature  is  known  as  the  "  Chun  Chiu,"  or  "  Spring  and 
Autumn  "  (annals).  But  a  really  interesting  and  valuable 
contribution  to  history  and  literature,  by  which  his 
disciples,  as  well  as  the  sage  himself,  appear  to  have  set 
far  less  store,  is  the  collection  he  made  of  the  old  folk- 
songs handed  down  by  tradition  and  known  to  us  as 
The  Book  of  Odes,  the  Shi  King  or  Poetry  Classic,  as  it  is 
called  by  the  Chinese.  These  give  a  pleasing  picture  of 
pastoral  life  and  the  frontier  wars,  and  so  an  insight  into 
the  condition  of  the  early  Chinese.  Many  translations 
of  these  charming,  simple  ballads  have  been  made,  the 
most  accurate  being,  in  my  opinion,  that  of  Mr.  T.  W. 
Kingsmill,  of  Shanghai. 

But  it  is  as  a  reformer  of  manners,  the  rough  manners 
of  a  fighting  age,  that  Confucius  has  reaped  the  esteem  and 
veneration  of  posterity.  His  ethical  teaching,  beyond  his 
insistence  on  filial  obedience  and  respect  for  ancestors, 
worship  in  the  old  sense  of  the  word,  was  subordinated  to 
the  insistence  on  manners, — "  Li,"  i.e.,  Decorum.  He 
seems  to  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that,  if  decorum 
were  duly  observed  outwardly,  the  correlative  change  of 
heart  would  in  time  follow.  The  best  record  that  we 
have  of  the  Sage  himself  is  preserved  in  his  conversations 
with  his  disciples,  as  reported  by  these,  in  the  "  Lun  yii  " 
and  in  their  account  of  his  personal  habits  in  the  "  Ana- 
lects "  so-called.  Much  of  this  appears  trivial  to  the 
modern  reader,  although  every  detail  given,  if  not  taken 
too  literally,  affords  an  insight  into  the  character  of  the 
Sage,  as  well  as  into  the  manners  of  his  time.  A  grand 
characteristic  was  his  honesty  in  not  claiming  any  more 
insight  into  the  unseen  world  than  his  neighbours,  unlike 
other  great  leaders  of  men,  such  as  Mahomet,  for  instance, 
who  found  it  necessary  to  assume  tangible  communion 
with  God,  in  order  to  impose  upon  the  Arabians  wise 


CONFUCIANISM  313 

ordinances  for  the  people's  conduct.  Confucius,  on  the 
other  hand,  when  asked  about  the  unseen  world,  replied, 
so  his  disciples  report, — "  When  we  understand  the 
natural,  it  will  be  time  to  enquire  into  the  supernatural." 

In  Confucius'  time  China  had  already  reached  a 
comparatively  high  stage  of  civilisation.  His  doctrine, 
as  is  often  the  case  with  human  work,  was  hardly  appre- 
ciated by  his  contemporaries,  and  it  was  not  until  after 
the  advent  of  the  Han  dynasty,  in  the  second  century  B.C., 
that  his  worth  was  recognised,  that  he  was  canonised  as  the 
""  Sage  "  or  "  Holy  man,"  and  his  family  ennobled.  The 
books  recording  his  life  and  sayings  were  only  then  with 
■difficulty  collected  and  thereafter  established  authorita- 
tively as  Classics,  their  study  becoming  later  the  enforced 
curriculum  of  every  Chinese  scholar,  and  the  limit  of  his 
education.  His  successor  Mencius,  who  was  a  man  of 
far  more  philosophical  spirit  and  with  equally  practical 
views,  endorsed  the  teachings  of  Confucius  some  300  years 
after  his  time  and  so  greatly  favoured  their  popularity. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  Kung  family  is  now  the 
oldest  on  earth,  judged  by  length  of  pedigree,  the  present 
Duke  Kung  being  the  seventy-sixth  in  direct  line  from 
Confucius.  This  interesting  descendant  of  a  great  man 
lives  in  a  palace  close  to  the  tomb  of  his  famous  ancestor 
in  Shantung,  and  it  is  noteworthy  that  in  all  the  many 
devastating  rebelhons,  that  have  swept  through  the 
country  during  the  last  2,400  years,  the  tomb  of  the  Sage 
has  been  invariably  respected  and  the  home  of  his  descend- 
ants left  unmolested.  The  famous  Mikado  of  Japan  places 
his  pedigree  farther  back,  but  the  names  of  his  ancestors 
teyond  1,500  years  are  mostly  mythical,  whereas  those  of 
the  present  Duke  Kung  are  all  preserved,  duly  authenti- 
cated by  each  succeeding  generation  in  the  Ancestral  Hall 
adjoining  the  tomb  of  Confucius  himself.  A  recent 
British  pilgrim  to  the  tomb  was  hospitably  received  by 
the  present  Duke,  whom  he  describes  as  a  dignified, 
sociable  man,  worthy  of  his  great  ancestor  ;  in  the  course 
of  conversation  he  informed  his  visitor  that  he  was  the 


314  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

largest  landed  proprietor  in  the  empire  ;  and  not  only- 
does  he  derive  a  sufficient  revenue  from  his  property  in 
Shantung,  which  has  never  been  alienated  since  it  was 
settled  upon  his  ancestor,  the  twelfth  descendant,  but  he 
is  the  titular  proprietor  of  all  the  Confucian  temples 
throughout  the  land,  each  one  of  which  contributes  to  his 
income.  Of  these  there  is  one  grand  temple  in  every 
district  centre  throughout  the  empire,  and  of  these  there 
are  no  less  than  1,300  in  the  eighteen  provinces  of  China 
Proper  alone,  besides  smaller  temples  in  nearly  every 
trading  mart.  In  these  temples  or  Commemorative 
Halls  no  images  whatever  are  allowed  ;  although  built 
and  arranged  much  as  are  the  Buddhist  temples — both, 
in  fact,  being  replicas  on  a  grander  scale  of  the  Yamens 
or  palaces  of  the  high  officials — nothing  but  a  simple 
tablet  of  red  wood  is  seen  above  the  altar,  with  the  name 
and  titles  of  Confucius  engraved  upon  it  in  gilt  letters. 
On  the  two  sides  of  the  main  building  in  which  the  tablet 
of  Confucius  is  erected,  stand  the  tablets  of  his  disciples  : 
these  take  the  place  of  the  life-sized  images  of  the  eighteen 
Lo-han,  or  Arhats,  the  disciples  of  Gautama,  in  the 
Buddhist  temples,  as  does  the  tablet  of  Confucius  replace 
the  universal  colossal  image  of  the  Buddha. 

The  Confucian  temples  usually  cover  a  large  area  of 
ground  in  the  most  valuable  parts  of  the  cities,  while, 
dating  back  as  many  of  them  do,  1000  years  or  more,  their 
numerous  spacious  court-yards  are  filled  with  avenues 
of  magnificent  trees,  cypresses  and  the  poetical  Salis- 
buria  adiantifoUa,  the  sacred  Jingko  tree  of  Japan.  A 
short  musical  service  is  held  immediately  before  dawn  on 
the  first  and  fifteenth  days  of  each  moon,  at  which  the 
attendance  of  the  officials  is  compulsory,  and  which  is 
seldom  attended  by  any  one  else  ;  but  the  temples  are 
always  open  and  can  be  visited  at  any  time.  Although 
Confucius  was  an  agnostic  in  the  sense  that  he  would  not 
endorse  what  he  did  not  know  to  be  true,  the  term 
atheist  which  some  of  his  foreign  critics  apply  to  him  is 
certainly  incorrect,  for,  while   the  general  drift  of  his 


CONFUCIANISM  315 

teaching  is  to  insist  upon  works  before  faith,  his  sayings 
are  full  of  allusions  to  an  all-controlling  "  T'ien  "  or  God, 
usually  translated  "  Heaven." 

Of  the  "  sweet  reasonableness  "  of  Confucius'  teaching 
there  can  be  no  question ;  it  has  never  formed  a  subject  of 
controversy  and  that  for  the  simple  reason  that  its 
system  of  pure  ethics,  unalloyed  by  dogma,  is  incontro- 
vertible. Moderation  is  the  key-note,  as  in  the  familiar 
passage  from  the  Chung  Yung, — the  Classic  of  the 
Mean — 

"  Perfect  is  the  virtue  which  is  according  to  the  Mean  : 
Rare  indeed  the  people  in  whose  practice  it  is  seen." 

The  "  Lun  iie  "  or  "  Analects  "  are  generally  beheved 
to  have  been  collated  in  the  second  generation  after 
Confucius'  death, — by  the  disciples  of  his  disciples.  I  add 
a  few  selected  extracts  from  the  volume  which  enshrines 
his  reported  discourses :  these  give  as  good  an  insight 
into  the  character  of  Confucius'  teaching  as  it  is  possible 
to  obtain — and  leave  the  reader  able  to  form  his  own 
estimate  of  their  doctrinal  value. 

"  Is  it  not  a  joyful  thing  to  welcome  friends  from  afar  ?  " 

"  The  good  man  goes  to  the  root  of  things,  viz. ,  filial  piety  whence 
all  other  good  actions  are  deduced.  Youth  should  overflow  in 
love  to  all  and  cultivate  the  friendship  of  the  good.  After  this 
he  may  devote  his  attention  to  polite  studies." 

"  I  will  not  be  afflicted  at  men  not  knowing  me  :  I  will  be  afflicted 
that  I  do  not  know  men." 

"  He  who  offends  against  Heaven  has  no  one  to  whom  he  can 
pray."  (Confucius  in  another  place  defines  Heaven  as  "  The 
lofty  One  who  is  on  high.") 

"  The  good  man  does  not,  even  in  the  course  of  a  single  meal, 
act  contrary  to  virtue.  In  moments  of  haste  he  cleaves  to  it. 
In  seasons  of  danger  he  cleaves  to  it." 

"  The  good  man  is  slow  in  his  speech  and  earnest  in  his  conduct." 

"  Man  is  born  for  uprightness.  If  a  man  lose  his  uprightness 
and  yet  live,  his  escape  from  death  is  the  result  of  mere  good 
fortune." 

"  In  letters  I  am  perhaps  equal  to  other  men,  but  /  have  not 
yet  reached  the  character  of  the  good  man  who  carries  out  what  he 
professes." 

"  While  Heaven  does  not  let  the  cause  of  truth  perish  what 
can  the  people  o^  Kwang  do  to  me  ?  " 


3i6  GLEANINGS   FROM    CHINA 

"  Although  his  food  might  be  coarse  rice  and  vegetable  soup, 
he  would  offer  a  little  of  it  in  sacrifice  with  a  grave,  respectful  air." 

"  If  a  learned  man  entrusted  with  a  charge  does  not  know  how 
to  act,  what  is  the  use  of  all  his  learning  ?  " 

"  Good  government  obtains  when  those  who  are  near  are  made 
happy  and  those  afar  off  are  attracted." 

"  To  lead  an  uninstructed  people  to  war  is  to  throw  them 
away." 

"  In  ancient  times  men  learnt  with  a  view  to  their  own  improve- 
ment. Nowadays  men  learn  with  a  view  to  the  approbation  of 
others." 

"  Recompense  injury  with  justice  and  kindness  with  kindness." 

"  If  my  principles  are  to  make  their  way  it  is  so  ordered  :  if 
they  are  to  fall  to  the  ground  it  is  so  ordered." 

"  '  RECIPROCITY  '  is  a  word  that  may  serve  as  a  rule  of  life- 
conduct.  What  you  do  not  want  done  to  yourself  do  not  do  to 
others." 

"  The  good  man  stands  in  awe  of  the  ordinances  of  Heaven." 

"  When  you  (magistrates)  have  found  out  the  truth  of  an 
accusation,  pity  the  offenders  and  do  not  rejoice  at  your  own 
cleverness." 

"  You  cannot  be  a  good  man  without  recognising  the  ordinances 
of  Heaven." 

"  I  do  not  murmur  against  Heaven  nor  grumble  at  men,  for 
Heaven  knows  my  objects." 

On  the  whole  the  "  doctrine  "  of  the  Sage  would  appear 
to  teach  that  the  "  Noble,"  "  Good,"  or  "  Superior  man  " 
as  Dr.  Legge  translates  the  Chinese  term  Chiintse  (Hterally 
"  Prince  "),  may  reform  himself  through  constant  endeav- 
our, or  "  estabKsh  himself  "  in  firm  principles,  as  Con- 
fucius is  reported  to  have  announced  his  having  succeeded 
in  doing  when  he  had  reached  the  age  of  thirty  years. 
We  see  that  it  is  not  correct  to  call  his  teaching  agnostic, 
and  that  there  is  no  reason  whatever  to  doubt  his  reverence 
for  the  supernatural  powers  and  humble  subjection  to  the 
Will  of  Heaven.  The  unmitigated  conceit  and  pride 
in  their  superiority  exhibited  by  the  literati  in  later  times 
is  due  rather  to  the  distortion  of  the  real  teaching  of 
Confucius,  a  distortion  such  as  in  all  times  rehgious 
founders  have  suffered  from  at  the  hands  of  their  followers 
and  self-appointed  interpreters. 

Confucius  is  often  taken  to  task  by  "  foreign  "  critics 
for  disingenuousness  in  not  teaching  his  disciples  clear 
views  in  regard  to  the  Divine  Being  and  future  existence. 


CONFUCIANISM  317 

Readers  of  the  preceding  will  have  seen  how  little  we  can 
really  know  of  what  he  did  teach.  Confucian  knowledge 
nowadays  is  derived  from  the  Confucian  school  of  the 
"  literati "  who  have  expounded  and  expanded  his  teaching 
into  the  "  orthodox  "  commentaries  now  ofhcially  ac- 
cepted. These  begin  five  hundred  years  after  the  date  of 
his  birth  and  end  with  Chu-hi  {1130-1200  a.d.)  twelve 
hundred  years  later,  when  the  official  seal  of  orthodoxy 
was  afhxed  to  the  great  commentator's  readings,  which 
none  since  have  dared  to  dispute  :  and  from  this  time 
on  dates  the  stereotyping  of  Chinese  civiHsation.  How 
distorted  the  views  of  the  orthodox  Christian  may  become 
we  may  read  in  the  following  extract  from  a  talented 
CathoHc  writer  on  the  subject.  He  says  : — "  Although 
Confucius  taught  the  necessity  of  reverence  and  disinter- 
ested charity,  he  had  no  true  behef  in  a  self-existing 
Creator  of  an  organised  universe  ;  no  faith  in  promised 
grace  to  come,  or  in  eternal  life  ;  no  true  love  of  God  as  a 
Perfect  Being  above,  and  superior  to  all  things  ;  no  true 
fear  of  God  as  the  Supreme  and  Sole  Ruler  of  the  universe  ; 
and  no  true  obedience  to  His  commandments."  As 
Mr.  E.  H.  Parker  says  : — "  Can  those  who  blame  Confucius 
for  not  beheving  all  this  show  any  grounds  why  at  that 
date  he  should  have  believed  it ;  and  are  they  sure  what 
they  mean  when  they  say  they  believe  it  themselves  ?  " 

Our  contention  is  that  Confucius  was  a  great  moral 
reformer  and  a  thoroughly  earnest  good  man  according 
to  his  lights,  and  that  thus  he  may  be  called  "  inspired  " 
as  much  as  any  other  great  leader  and  teacher  of  humanity; 
and  farther,  that  in  order  to  Christianise  the  Confucian 
nations,  we  must  build  upon  Confucius  and  cannot  in 
surety  nor  usefully  call  attention  to  his  shortcomings. 
We  must  in  short  make  Christian  teaching  eclectic,  much 
as  Christ  Himself  taught,  if  it  is  to  gain  the  suffrages  of 
thoughtful  and  sincere  men  either  in  Japan  or  China. 

There  is  in  the  Chinese  language  no  true  equivalent  for 
our  word  Religion,  though  there  are  any  number  of 
equivalents   for   the   practices  which   religion   exists   to 


3i8  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

inculcate,  love  of  one's  neighbour  ;  tolerance  ;  duty  of 
son  to  father,  of  wife  to  husband,  of  junior  to  senior 
brother,  of  subject  to  ruler  and  of  friend  to  friend,  includ- 
ing all  the  virtues  which  we  arrogantly  define  as  Christian. 
The  above  may  well  be  summed  up  in  Religion,  though  in 
the  Confucian  Classics  they  are  styled  the  "  Wu  lun,"  or 
"  Five  Relationships."  Our  writers  on  sociology  are 
anxious  not  alone  to  have  the  data  of  the  science  clearly 
determined,  but  they  would  have  the  statistics  of  the 
memberships  of  the  various  sects  of  the  people  of  England 
and  America  accurately  enumerated  where  no  strict 
enumeration  is  possible :  numbers  of  worthy  people 
having  a  difficulty  in  themselves  defining  their  own 
religious  belief  and  classing  themselves  in  any  one  distinct 
category.  In  the  same  way,  statisticians  will  attempt 
to  divide  up  China  into  Confucianists,  Taoists  and 
Buddhists. 

But  if  you  ask  a  Chinaman  under  which  of  these  three 
denominations  he  classes  himself,  ten  to  one  that  he  will 
reply  "  Shin  san  kiao."  "  I  beheve  in  the  teaching  of  all 
three  "  ;  or,  more  literally,  "  I  believe  in  the  three  doc- 
trines "  ;  that  is,  he  governs  his  conduct  by  the  rules  of 
life  attributed  to  Confucius,  nourishes  his  hopes  of  future 
rest  in  his  acceptance  of  Buddhism,  and  his  immunity  from 
attacks  of  evil  spirits, — the  ghosts  of  unburied  mortals 
and  others, — in  the  demon  quelling  efficiency  of  Taoism. 
He  is  a  true  eclectic,  and  no  large  body  of  Confucianists 
ever  is  likely  freely  to  embrace  religions  like  Islamism  or 
Christianity,  which  demand  undivided  allegiance  to  their 
own  peculiar  dogmas  and  to  which  the  respect  paid  to 
ancestors  is  anathema.  This  "ancestral  worship"  is 
the  one  really  active  motive  to  conduct  with  the  Chinese, 
and  forms  the  real  tie  which  binds  families  together  and 
drives  those  members  of  a  family  that  have  the  means, 
to  divide  their  wealth  with  all  the  members  of  their 
generation  and,  in  particular,  to  support  their  aged  and 
helpless  relatives  at  their  own  firesides.  The  Chinese  are 
eclectic  in  a  way  hardly  credited  in  modern  Europe,  but 


CONFUCIANISM  319 

in  a  way  well  known  to  and  accepted  by  the  practical 
Romans  of  old. 

Thus,  so  far  Christianity  is  mostly  confined  to  converts 
among  the  poor  and  needy  ;  the  literati,  the  educated 
classes,  setting  their  faces  against  it  as  at  present 
preached ;  this  preaching  being  too  uncompromising 
and  directly  antagonistic  to  Chinese  eclecticism.  The 
Chinese  are  by  nature  tolerant  and  will  never  admit 
that  any  one  religion  has  a  monopoly  of  the 
virtues.  Missionaries  of  all  sects  have  until  recent 
times  always  been  hospitably  received  in  China.  Under 
the  great  and  progressive  Tang  dynasty  (a.d.  618-907) 
the  Nestorian  Christians  were  not  only  permitted  to  preach 
their  religion  but  were  given  land  upon  which  to  build 
churches,  as  we  learn  from  the  Nestorian  tablet  still 
extant  in  Si-an-fu.  In  the  same  way,  under  the  famous 
dynasty  of  Han,  the  Buddhist  missionaries  from  the  isles 
of  the  West  (probably  Ceylon)  were  received  with  open 
arms  and  their  teaching  rapidly  became  popular  and 
overran  the  whole  empire.  The  first  Jesuit  missionaries 
were,  as  we  know,  equally  well  received  and  made  good 
progress  at  the  Court  of  Peking  itself.  But  all  these  did 
not  proclaim  aloud  that  previous  religions  were  the  work 
of  the  devil  nor  did  they  assume  supremacy  above  the 
Chinese  Emperor-Pope. 

When,  however,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  the 
Dominicans  came  upon  the  scene  and,  jealous  of  the 
Jesuits'  success,  appealed  to  the  Pope  of  Rome  to  order  the 
Jesuits  to  preach  against  ancestral  worship,  the  indig- 
nant Chinese  Emperor  forbade  the  propagation  of  Christi- 
anity absolutely  throughout  his  dominions.  As  himself 
the  Pope  of  the  old  national  religion  (akin  to  the 
"Shinto"  religion  of  Japan,  in  Chinese,  "  Shentao  " — 
"  Path  of  the  Gods  "),  alone  worthy  to  perform  the  annual 
sacrifice  to  "  Supreme  Heaven  "  on  behalf  of  his  people, 
the  powerful  Emperor  Kang-hi  objected  to  an  upstart 
Pope  from  the  barbarian  West  infringing  his  decrees. 
The  earlier  Nestorian  and  Buddhist  missionaries  were 


320  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

self-appointed  ascetics  who  lived  upon  the  free-will 
offerings  of  their  audiences  and  owned  nothing  but  the 
clothes  on  their  backs  and  the  staff  in  their  hand.  Such 
wandering  ascetics  are  popular  and  respected  throughout 
all  Asia.  They  are  strict  vegetarians,  on  the  principle 
of  not  shedding  blood,  by  no  means  abstainers  from  the 
cup  that  cheers,  and,  in  excess,  inebriates  ;  but  absolutely 
free  from  all  aspirations  for  political  influence. 

The  Emperor's  tablet  is  thus  set  up  in  Buddhist  temples 
as  the  patron,  much  as  we  find  the  royal  arms  displayed 
above  the  altar  in  the  old  Georgian  churches  in  England, 
without  in  any  way  compromising  the  worship  of  "  the 
Buddha  "  or  the  implied  superiority  of  either  Buddhism 
or  Shintoism,  which  may  thus  be  said  to  be  treated  as  an 
open  question.  Compare  a  propaganda  so  spread  in  a 
quiet  simple  way  with  a  propaganda  backed  by  outside 
political  power  and  to  support  which,  with  or  without 
the  desire  of  the  missionaries,  armed  forces  are  from  time 
to  time  employed — "  ad  major  em  Dei  gloriam !  "  Com- 
pare, too,  a  poor  shabby  ascetic  with  a  full-fed  English  or 
American  missionary  receiving  a  salary  of  ten  times  that  of 
many  a  small  Chinese  official, — and  ruled  by  a  Committee 
of  his  employers  sitting  in  the  capital  of  a  distant  foreign 
country.  Compare,  too,  the  arrogant  invective  against 
the  so-called  heathen  in  the  preaching  of  many  of  such 
missionaries  with  the  tolerance  of  the  street  preachers  of 
Confucianism.  These  latter  preach  nothing  but  good 
works  and  the  needful  reform  of  evil  lives,  with  not  a 
reference  to  Buddhism,  Christianity  or  any  other  what  we 
should  call,  rival  religion.  To  refer  to  such  in  a  disre- 
spectful way  would  be  absolutely  opposed  to  the  spirit  of 
true  Confucian  teaching.  Compare,  too,  the  practical 
distinction  between  the  vegetarian  ascetic  and  the  Anglican 
or  American  missionary  who  taboos  the  strengthening 
glass  of  wine  habitual  to  an  essentially  temperate  people, 
while  he  himself  flies  in  the  face  of  his  would-be  converts' 
principles  by  eating  the  flesh  of  oxen.  For  the  ox  holds 
a  semi-sacred  position  in  China  as  the  handmaid  of  divine 


CONFUCIANISM  321 

agriculture,  while  to  the  Buddhist  the  shedding  of  all 
blood  is  a  profanation.  Although  the  Chinese  are  mostly 
moderate  consumers  of  pork,  yet  a  self-constituted  teacher 
of  morals  ought,  in  the  Chinese  view,  to  exhibit  the  ideal 
life  of  abstinence  and  self-sacrifice  in  his  person  and 
practice. 

As  I  have  said  already,  the  Chinese  are  by  nature  eclectic 
and  tolerant  and  the  European  missionary  shocks  these 
fundamental  principles  of  their  ethics.  I  have  myself 
seen  in  a  large  inland  city  a  Protestant  missionary  cele- 
brate the  conversion  of  a  Chinese  family  by  forming  a 
holocaust  of  his  converts'  ancestral  tablets,  including  the 
family  tree,  a  beautifully  engraved  shield  of  lacquered 
hardwood  with  the  tree  and  the  names  of  the  ancestors 
for  sixteen  generations  back,  deeply  cut  in  characters  of 
gold.  But  for  the  presence  of  British  gunboats  patrolling 
the  river,  the  mob  would  have  destroyed  the  "  Gospel 
Hall  "  there  and  then,  and  not  have  left  one  brick  upon 
another. 

Again,  the  narrow  laws  enforced  by  the  missionaries 
compel  the  converts  to  Christianity  to  live  as  a  class  apart, 
thus  forming  an  imperium  in  imperio  and  raising  the 
hostility  of  their  pagan  neighbours  all  around.  The 
Chinese  are  essentially  a  religious  people,  and  "  worship  " 
enters  into  every  act  of  their  daily  life.  At  the  same  time 
the  democratic  methods  of  their  self-government  under 
a  nominally  autocratic  emperor  lead  to  all  public  works 
being  carried  out  by  voluntary  association,  and  by 
subscriptions  enforced  by  the  pressure  of  public  opinion 
alone.  But  a  Christian  may  not  join  in  such  works,  may 
not  subscribe  to  the  guilds,  which  are  to-day  in  China 
what  our  trade-guilds  were  in  the  middle  ages  ;  he  may  not 
attend  the  theatricals  which  are  the  joy  of  the  villages 
and  which  form  the  education  of  the  masses  in  their  own 
history — because  such  entertainments,  raised  by  subscrip- 
tion and  free  to  the  poor,  involve  so-called  idolatrous 
practices.  For  every  public  act  in  China  and  every 
guild  dinner  commences  with  bowing  before  the  altar. 


322  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

the  burning  of  incense  and  the  offering  of  a  cup  of  rice 
and  wine.  All  this  is  anathema  to  the  Christian,  and  so  the 
guild  or  any  other  "  good  work  "  undertaken  in  common 
is  the  poorer  for  the  lack  of  the  Christian's  contribution. 

I  have  given  the  facts  and  have  attempted  to  prove 
how  strong  to-day  is  necessarily  the  hold  which  Confu- 
cianism has  upon  the  peoples  of  the  Far  East ;  and  how 
impracticable  is  the  project  of  well-meaning  missionary 
societies  to  break  down  this  hold  unless  Christianity,  or 
rather  the  Churches  of  Christendom,  as  at  present  consti- 
tuted, can  be  so  transformed  as  to  admit  eclecticism.  It 
is  useless  to  expect  such  a  radical  change  to  take  place 
in  a  day  or  a  decade  or  in  many  decades.  Meanwhile  the 
preceding  essay  must  not  be  taken  as  an  advocacy  of 
Confucianism  versus  Christianity,  but  as  a  suggestion  for 
embracing  Confucianism  in  Christianity  in  lieu  of  a  vain 
struggle  to  supersede  it  entirely.  The  bulk  of  modern 
intellectual  opinion  is  tending  in  this  direction,  and  it 
is  not  too  much  to  hope  that,  in  good  time,  the  Churches 
may  follow.  The  present  outfit  of  hard  and  fast  dogma 
was  only  crystallised  into  a  creed  after  many  centuries  of 
controversy,  when  a  bare  majority  of  the  early  Christians 
compelled  the  so-called  heretical  minority  to  abjure  their 
heresies  at  the  point  of  the  sword.  Why  should  not  an 
ecumenical  council  of  the  future  restore,  say,  the  tenets 
of  the  Nestorian  Christians  who  spread  the  teachings  of 
Christ  throughout  Asia  without  meeting  with  persecution 
and  hardly  with  opposition  ? 

No  one  who  has  lived  in  the  East  and  given  earnest 
attention  to  the  subject  can  doubt  for  a  moment  the  boon 
it  would  be  to  the  Asiatics  if  they  could  be  persuaded  to 
superimpose  the  teachings  of  Christ  on  those  of  Confucius 
and  Gautama.  It  is  true  that  we  cannot  know  definitely  of 
what  the  actual  teaching  of  the  latter  consisted  ;  but  we 
know  that  it  was  akin  to  Christian  teaching,  and  there  is 
good  reason  to  suppose  that  this  teaching,  by  the  time  of 
the  Christian  era,  had  filtered  through  to  Syria  and  influ- 
enced the  minds  of  the  people  from  whom  Our  Lord  sprung. 


CONFUCIANISM  323 

He  Himself  was  a  transmitter  although  at  the  same  time  a 
reformer  ;  He  did  not  anathematise  the  existing  rehgions 
of  his  day  ;  He  rather  tended  to  build  upon  them  and 
render  them  more  spiritual.  The  virgin  birth  and  other 
"  dogmas  "  were  discovered  after  His  death ;  and,  although 
we  have  more  exact  record  of  His  teaching  than  we 
possess  of  that  of  Confucius  or  Gautama,  yet  the  record  is 
still  inexact,  having  not  been  compiled  till  a  generation  or 
more  after  His  death. 

That  missionary  work  as  now  carried  on  in  China  has 
immensely  benefited  the  Chinese  it  is  impossible  for 
any  student  of  Chinese  conditions  to  contest.  The  com- 
mon sarcasms  upon  missionary  effort  are  made  by  men 
who  have  no  practical  experience  of  the  work  actually 
done.  The  genuine  Chinese  Christian,  certainly  among 
the  lower  classes  of  Chinese,  is  as  superior  to  the  man 
whose  religion  consists  alone  in  the  punctual  performance 
of  outward  ceremonies  as  is  the  genuine  Christian  under 
similar  circumstances  at  home.  Cleanliness  outwardly 
and  inwardly  is  the  distinction  of  the  missionary-educated 
Chinese,  in  the  midst  of  the  filth  that  marks  the  very  poor 
in  all  countries.  But  the  educated  classes  can  never, 
either  in  China  or  in  Japan,  be  expected  to  adopt  the 
Christianity  of  our  Churches :  rather  than  accept  its 
dogmas  as  at  present  taught,  they  take  a  pride,  especially 
the  Japanese,  in  shewing  that  they  can  behave  as  Chris- 
tians while  still  professing  to  be  carrying  out  simply  the 
doctrines  of  original  Shintoism — the  "  Tao  "  or  Logos 
of  their  own  ancestral  religion.  And,  in  like  manner, 
educated  Chinese  will  tell  you  : — "  We  already  possess 
all  your  Christian  teaching  in  our  three  religions."  On 
the  other  hand,  although  research  enables  us  to  trace  the 
teaching  of  the  New  Testament  already  pre-existing  in 
the  books  of  Confucius,  Gautama  and  Lao-tse,  yet 
these  lack  the  direct,  simple  exhortations  to  moral  con- 
duct that  we  find  in  our  gospels  and  epistles  ;  nor  is  such 
teaching  as  the  three  religions  provide  to-day  understanded 
of  the  people.  Though  we  find,  for  instance,  in  the  Matrab- 


324  GLEANINGS    FROM    CHINA 

trarata  of  Buddhism  the  words  :  "  The  woman  is  the 
half  of  the  man,  she  is  his  best  friend,  the  source  of  all 
happiness.  The  woman  with  her  sweet  language  is  the 
friend  in  soHtude,  the  mother  of  the  oppressed,  the 
refreshment  on  the  journey  through  the  wilderness  of 
life  " — yet  sa3-ing3  like  this,  buried,  as  many  of  them  are, 
in  a  mass  of  unintelligible  matter,  in  no  way  affect  the 
life  of  Eastern  peoples,  among  whom  the  position  of  woman 
is  a  notorious  reproach  to  their  so-called  civilisation. 

The  Chinese  literatus,  who  may  well  be  compared 
to  the  Pharisee  of  the  Bible  puffed  up  with  the  pride  of 
learning,  has  strayed  far  from  the  doctrine  of  his  ancient 
teachers  :  he  despises  both  woman  and  the  "  common 
people,"  and  sadly  needs  to  assimilate  the  Christian  teach- 
ing of  respect  for  woman,  as  well  as  the  equality  of  all 
men,  learned  and  ignorant  alike,  in  the  eye  of  "  Heaven." 
Such  proverbs  common  among  them  as  "  It  were  better 
that  woman  did  not  exist  at  all  but  for  the  want  of  her  to 
bring  forth  children  "  shew  the  absolute  need  of  the  assimi- 
lation of  the  Christian  spirit  of  the  West  before  they  can 
reach  the  level  of  even  such  civilisation  as  we  dare  boast. 
It  is  with  the  view  of  directing  more  general  consideration 
to  the  best  practical  means  of  spreading  Christian  in- 
fluence among  them  that  the  above  suggestions  for  the 
adoption  of  a  more  practical  eclecticism  are  put  forward. 

We  do  not  go  so  far  as  to  suggest  that  every  modern 
missionary  should  be  necessarily  an  ascetic  or  that 
Christianity  merely  stands  on  a  level  with  the  pre-existing 
didactic  religions  of  the  East,  whereas  we  hold  it  to  be 
a  step  in  advance  based  upon  them.  We  only  venture  to 
cite  the  obstacles  that  experience  in  China  shews  us  to 
exist,  in  the  hope  that  the  heavy  outlay  in  money,  derived 
from  the  contributions  of  well-wishers  in  the  West,  and 
the  zeal  of  the  three  thousand  missionaries  in  China, 
whom  these  contributions  support,  may  result  in  the 
future  in  a  harvest  more  proportionate  to  the  vast  effort 
expended  than  any  hitherto  reaped  among  the  teeming 
millions  of  the  "  Farther  East." 


INDEX 


Allied  Troops,    bad  conduct  of, 

305- 

American  :  Asiatic  Association  and 
British  China  Association, 
relations  of,  68 ;  Episcopal 
Church  Mission,  296  ;  Method- 
ist Mission,  165  ;  Interest  in 
China,  73. 

Amoy,  port  of,  206. 

Analects,  or  Lun  iie,  315,  316. 

Ancestral  tablets,  burned  by  mis- 
sionaries,   321. 

Annam,  212. 

Anning  River,  18. 

Antipathy  of  Chinese  Government 
to  foreign   assistance,   37. 

Archimandrite  Palladius,   213. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  307. 

Astronomical   Observatory,    207. 


Baber,  Mr.,  account  of  journeys, 
26  ;    Consular  interpreter,  195. 

Balfour,  Mr.  F.  H.,  34. 

Bathang,  3. 

Bellows  Gorge  (Feng  Hiang),  118, 
125. 

Beresford,  Lord  Charles,  55  ;  de- 
nounced by  Mr.  Holmstrem, 
66. 

Ehamo,  3,  195. 

Bishop,  Mrs.,  142,  157. 

Blackwall  Channel,  accident  at,  190. 

Blackiston,  Captain,  2. 

Bluewater  Bay,  93. 

Bodyul  (Land  of  Bod),  93. 

Bogle,  Mr.,  213. 

Boots  (Chinese  farce) :  Sc.  L,  225  ; 
So.  IL,  229;  Sc.  IIL,  243. 

Boxers,  excesses  of,  305 ;  move- 
ment started  in  Shantung,  299  ; 
rising,  289. 

Brahmanism,  founded  by  Prince 
Gantama,  308. 

Bretschneider,    Dr.,    212,    213. 


Britain  and  China,  74. 

British  manufactures,  10. 

Browne,  Colonel  Horace  :  meeting 
of,  with  Margary,  3,  195,  198, 
199. 

Buddha's  Ear  Chff,  158. 

Buddhist  teaching,  286,  287,  288. 

Burmah  to  south-western  China, 
trade  route  through,  3  ;  pos- 
sessions, II. 


Caindu,  164. 

Canadian     Ladies'     Mission,     165  ; 

Methodist  Mission,  165. 
Canton,  murder  of  Englishmen  at, 

58  ;    Sacred  city  of,  57. 
Causeway,  Great  Stone,  78. 
Census  of  1812,  14. 
Chamberlain,       Mr.,       speech      of, 

lOI. 

Chang  Chih-tung,  Viceroy  of  Huk- 
wang,  37. 

Chang-peh-sha,  168. 

Chao-chia-tu,  163. 

Chao-Kung,  216. 

Chee-shan,  173. 

Chef  00,  171;  convention,  4,  7, 
io>  35  ;     new  coast  port,  59. 

Che-Kiang,  289. 

Cheng-lin,  Tao-tai  of  the  Kwei-sui 
district  in   Shansi,   202. 

Cheng-tu,  Plain  of,  15,  16,  145, 
150,  154,  156,  162,  164,  166, 
167,    169,   286. 

Chen-hiung-hien,  Capt.  Pottinger's 
victory  at,   169. 

Chien-ch'ang,  18. 

"  China  and  the  Powers,"  by  Lord 
Charles  Beresford,   55. 

China :  position  of,  2 ;  Central 
Government  of,  40  ;  Golden  Age 
of,  216  ;  Inland  Mission,  160, 
165  ;  Merchants'  Steam  Navi- 
gation Co.,  204  ;  partition  of, 
98  ;  Western,  10,  11. 


325 


326 


INDEX 


"  Chinese  Characteristics,"  by  Rev. 
Arthur  Smith,  295. 

Chinese  :  Cities,  uncleanhness  of, 
34 ;  civihzation  favourably 
compared  with  Western,  306  ; 
conservatism  of,  99  ;  corrup- 
tion of  EngUsh-speaking,  169  ; 
dips  or  candles,  19  ;  Drama 
and  legend,  216 ;  maritime 
customs,  63  ;  medicines,  22  ; 
officials,  antagonism  of,  36 ; 
pantomimes,  216  ;  polytechnic 
institution,  208 ;  railwaj-s, 
probable  future  of,  37  ;  road- 
makers,  80 ;  stage,  state  of, 
217  ;  steam  ships,  10  ;  theatri- 
cal companies,  221  ;  travel, 
romance  of,  110-116;  Turki- 
stan,  210. 

Ching-yang-Kung,  Taoist  temple 
of,   167. 

Chinhai,   188. 

Chin-Kea-men,   188. 

Chin  Kiang,  new  treaty  port,  59. 

Chin  Shih-Hwangti,  "  First  Em- 
peror,"  117. 

Cliing-yang,  Taoist  monastery,  165. 

Chokey  Peak,  183,  1S8. 

Choo-chia,  Island  of,  187. 

Choo-chia-shan,   177,   182. 

Chow-Kung,  216. 

Christian  Literature  Society  of 
China,  297. 

Chii,  City  of,  154  ;    river,  157. 

Chu-ho,  branch  of  Kia-ling,  154. 

Chu-ko-liang,  165. 

Ch'un,  Prince,  198,  201. 

Chung-King,  4-10,  15-29,  123-140, 
151-168. 

Foreign  merchants  established 
in,  29 ;  free  rice  and  free 
ferries,   131  ;    journey  to,  6. 

Chung-t'an-ch'iao,   Bridge  of,    159. 

Chung  Yung,  315. 

Chusan,  Islands,  58 ;  description 
of,  176;    archipelago,  171. 

Coal,  Cost  of,  154  ;  mines  of  Keel- 
ing, 204. 

Cochin-China,  212. 

Conference  rates,  48. 

Confucianism,  308  ;  suggestion  to 
embrace  it  in  Christianity,  322. 

Confucius,  216,  310,  311,  315,  323. 

Cooper,  T.  T.,  2. 

Corniche  Road,   123. 

Corryton,    Mr.    J.    213. 

Courtezans,  221. 


Dalai-Lama,  91 
Davenport,    Mr.,    14,    15,    195. 
De  Witte,  217. 
Dominicans,  319. 

Drainage     in      Peking,     ruins     of 
ancient,  81 


Educated  Classes  in  China  and 
Japan,  323. 

"  Eight  Banners,"  The,  78. 

Elgin,  Lord,  59. 

Elliot,  Sir  George,  56. 

Emperor  of  China,  God's  Vice- 
regent,  73  ;   "  Son  of  Heaven," 

53- 

England :  catchpenny  statement 
regarding,  70 ;  practical  pro- 
position by,  in  regard  to 
Siberian  Railway,  63. 

Er-lang-miao,  167. 

Eurasian  continent,  2. 

European,  education  of  Chinese, 
296  ;  missionaries,  23  ;  mission- 
aries and  Chinese  teachers 
compared,  320. 

Evans,  Mr.,  160. 

Exner,  Mr.,  25. 


Far  Eastern  Department,  ne- 
cessity of,  104. 

Fatsia  papyrifera,  21. 

Feng-hiang,   123. 

Fertiliser,  manufacture  of,  80. 

Feudal  system,  308. 

Five  treaty  ports  opened,  56. 

Fo-erh-ngai  (Buddha's  Ear  CUff), 
158. 

Foochow,  206,   207. 

"  Forbidden  City,"  The,  78. 

Foreign  Office,  10. 

Formosa,  202,  206. 

Forrest,  R.  J.,  Consul  at  Ning-Po, 
191. 

Forsyth,  Sir  Thomas,  210. 

Fortune,  Mr.,  289. 

Fryer,  Mr.,  208. 

Fu-Kien,  206. 

Fu-tai  of  Ta-li,  13. 


Gabet,  Father,  2. 
Gan-su,  175. 
Gantama,   Prince,   314, 
Genghis- Khan,    76. 


323- 


INDEX 


327 


Gordon,  General,  14. 

Government    in    China,     weakness 

of  Central,  40. 
Great  Britain,  inactivity  of,  211. 
Great  Northern  Telegraph  Co.,   of 

Copenhagen,  32,  206. 
Grey,  Mr.  Donald,  137. 
Gros,  Baron,  59. 
Grosvenor  and  Baber,  Messrs.,  4. 
Grosvenor,  Hon.  T.  B.,  195. 
Gutzlafi,  172. 

H 

Haiphong,  212. 

Hai-tan-chi,  village  of,  128. 

Han,  river,  24. 

Han  Dynasty,  313. 

Hangchow,  Bay  of,   173. 

Hankow,  34,  196,  210,  214. 

Hanyang,  35. 

Hart,  Sir  Robert,  43,  96. 

Hermit,   meeting  with  a,   180. 

Hien-feng,  58,  202. 

High  Commissioners,  8. 

Hoang-ko-ya,   128,   129. 

Hoang-tsang-pei,  144. 

Holcombe,  Mr.,  213. 

Holmstrem,  Mr.  Vladimir,  51-62. 

Holt    Hallett,    Mr.,    24. 

Honkong  :    extension,  70,  203. 

Hope,  Admiral,  58. 

Hosie,  Mr.,  18,  19. 

Hsin-lung-tan,   148. 

Hsin-tan,   142. 

Hsishan,  84. 

Hsiich-Pao-ting,  94. 

Hue,  Abbe,   2. 

Hupeh,  21,  120,  147,  151. 

I 

ICHANG  :     4,    8,    22,       120,    140,    141, 

147,  149,  150,  196;  conven- 
tion, 9  ;  state  of  foreign  resi- 
dents, 35, 

Imperial  maritime  customs,  23,  43. 

India,  210. 

Intoxicating  liquors,  23. 


Juvenal's  Rome,  i. 

Jardine,  Matheson  &  Co.,  203. 

Japan,  212. 

Jaxartes,  212. 

Jesuit  missionaries,   319. 


Kakhyen  country,  3. 
Kalgan,  36. 


Kang-hi,     Emperor,    319  ;      sacred 

edict  of,  293. 
Kang-yu-wei,  99. 
Kansuh,  203,  214. 
Kara-Koram,  76. 
Karatan,  mines  of,  212. 
Kashgar,  203,  210. 
Kerosene,  import  of,  102. 
Ketan  Point,  188. 
Kia-ling,  river  (or   Kia-ling-kiang) , 

15,  29,  159,  161. 
Kiang-K'ou,   i65. 
Kiao-chao,  72. 
Kia-ting,   18,   168. 
Kinder,  Mr.,  63,  64. 
King  Chow,  217. 
Kingsmill,  Mr.  T.  W.,  208,  213. 
Kinsha,  H.M.  gunboat,  141. 
Kin-sha  Kiang  (or  Gold  dust  river), 

15- 

Kin-tang  Island,  188. 

Kin  Tartars,  or  "  Gorden  Horde," 
76. 

Kokand,  Khanate  of,  211. 

Korea,  212. 

Krupp  factory,  207. 

Kublai  Khan,  76. 

Kue-shan,   176. 

Kuing-chow,   212. 

"  Killing,"    pioneer   steamer,    8-10. 

Kung :  Prince,  59,  200,  201  ; 
family,  313. 

Kung-sheng-j  en    (Confucius) ,     311. 

Kwang-hsii,  Emperor,  99,  147, 
200,  297. 

Kwan-hien,  166,  167. 

Kwanyin  Pu-sa,  Goddess  of  mari- 
ners, 182. 

Kweichow,   11,   128,   133,   290. 

Kwei-fu,  or  Kwei-chow-fu,  120, 
126,    140,    147,    148,    196. 

Kwei-Kwan,  125. 

Kwenlun  and   Altai   Mts.,   93. 


Lao-chang,  129. 
Lao-chiin-tung,   Peak  of,    128. 
Laokai,  24. 
Lao-tse,   128,  216. 
"  La    Province    Chinoise   du    Yun- 
nan,"  by  M.   Rocher,   13. 
Leechuen  steamer,  134,  138,  139. 
Legge,  D.,  316. 
Liang-shan,   158. 
Liao,  or  Kitan  Tartars,  76. 
Lien-hwa-yang,  177. 
Li  Han-chang,  196-199. 


328 


INDEX 


Li  Hung-chang,  4,  14,  30,  36,  196- 

201. 
Ling-chi,  method  of  execution,  106, 
Little,  Dr.  L.  S.,  207,  208. 
Li-tu-h6,   158. 

Liu-peh,  Emperor,  146,  148. 
Liu  Yoh-chao,  198. 
London  and  Pekin,  compared,  74. 
Lu-chow,   163. 
Lu-han,  railway,  103. 
Lung-chang-sze,  286. 
Lun  tie,  or  analects^  315. 

M 

Macaulay  Mission,  96. 

Mahomedans,   12. 

Mahometan  revolt  in  1856,  i. 

Manchu  city.  A,  77  ;  dynasty,  41  ; 
precedence,  201 ;  scheme  to  oust 
foreigners,  299. 

Man-tse,  cave  dwellers,  27. 

Manwyne,  village,  194. 

Marco  Polo,  2,  76,  152,  164,  213. 

Margary,  3,  4 ;  murder  of,  194 ; 
195,  197.  210,  214. 

Markham,  Mr.  Clements,   213. 

Mason,  Mr.  Joshua,  162. 

Mayers,  Mr.  W.  F.,  213. 

Medhurst,  Consul,  205,  208. 

Mekong,  92. 

Mencius,  philosopher,  216,  309,  313. 

Meng-liang,  ladder  of,  146. 

Metric  system,  45. 

Miao-chi,   148. 

Miao-tse,  aborigines  of  Kweichow, 
II. 

Militia,  40. 

Min-kiang,  river,  15,  18,  166. 

Missionaries  :  in  China,  289  ;  Model, 
34 ;  competition  in  business, 
291-293  ;  books  on  China,  295  ; 
and  Chinese  law,  302  ;  work, 
benefit  to  China,  296,  297,  307, 

323- 
Mi-tan  Gorge,  142. 
Momein,  3,  195. 
Montgomery,  Colonel,  210. 
Morgan,  Mr.  Pritchard,  166. 


Nagasaki,  207,  208. 
Napier,  Lord,  56. 
Naryn,  river,  211. 
Nestorian  Christians,   319. 
Newchwang,  61,  62,  102. 
Nc-w  Rapid,  134-138;    destroying, 
135;  loss  by,  137. 


Ning-po,   178. 

Xiu-ko,  whirlpools,  144. 


O'Connor,  Mr.  N.  R.,  6,  7. 
Ookhtomsky,  Prince  E.,  51,  52,  53, 

61. 
"  Open    Door,    The,"    policy,    55, 

56,  57- 
Opium,  20,  22,  23. 
O'mi,  mountains,  18. 
Ox,    the,    semi-sacred    position    of, 

320. 
Oxus,  212. 


Pai-la-shu,  or  "  white  wax  tree," 
19. 

Pai  Ti  cheng,  118. 

Pakhoi,  4. 

Palmerston,  Lord,  69. 

Pamir  Steppe,  210. 

Panthay  Sultan,  establishment  of 
a,  i;  rebellion,  11,  12;  mas- 
sacre, 13,  14,  15. 

Pao-chao,  General,  120. 

Pao-ning,  river,  154,  159. 

Parker,  Mr.  E.  H.,  317. 

Parkes,  Sir  Harry,  59,  88,  90,  103. 

Peasants,  poverty  and  disease  of 
inland,  33. 

Peh-hua-shan,  179. 

Peh-ti-ch'eng  (White  Emperor's 
City),  146. 

Peh-ting,  and  Tung-ting,  islands, 
184. 

Pei-ho,  River,  58,  78. 

P'ei-shih,  121,  151. 

Peking :    11;    French  and  English 
expedition  to,  and  capture  of, 
58  ;    capital  of  "  Yen,"  75,  76, 
77  ;  sanitation  of.  So  ;   state  of 
streets,    81,    87  ;     nationalities 
in,  88  ;    to  Shan-hai-kwan,  90  ; 
Tientsin  railway,  152  ;    murder 
of  Margary  in,  195  ;    heads  of 
departments  in,  198  ;    govern- 
ment, action  of,   in  regard  to 
Mohammedan  tribes,  203,  214. 
Peng-chi,  160. 
Pennel  Point,   173. 
Perry,  Commodore,  54. 
Philhps,  Mr.  G.,  213. 

Pi,  River,  164. 

Pien  Me  Chi,  120. 

Ping-shan,  2. 

Pisciculture,  21. 


INDEX 


329 


Pobiedonostzeff,  M.,  52. 
P.  &  O.  Co.,  47. 
Poo-too,  177,  178. 
Port  Arthur,  62. 
Pottinger,  Capt.,  169. 
Protestant    missionaries,    tact     of, 
303- 

Q 

QUANGYEN,    212. 


Railway  between  Kaiping  and 
Tientsin,  36 ;  Railways,  90, 103. 

Ramie  fibre,  20. 

"  Rat's  Plaint,  The  "  (poem),  274- 
285. 

Religion  and  Philosophy,  286. 

Richthofen,    Baron    Von,    26,    213. 

Rocher,  Consul,  12. 

Russia  :  advance  of,  42  ;  annexa- 
tion by  62,  and  Great  Britain 
71  ;  stealthy  advance  of,  loi  ; 
disregard  of  Treaty  rights  at 
Newchwang,  102  ;  great  strides 
made  by,  211. 

Ryder,  Admiral,  199. 


Saddle  Islands,  190. 

Salisbury,  Lord :  and  convention 
of  1876,  9  ;  speech  in  House  of 
Lords  in  1898,  71  ;  action  of 
his  Government,  100, 

Salt :  export  of,  22 ;  trade  in 
China,  25  ;  government  mono- 
poly, 186. 

Salween,  3,  92. 

Sanitation  of  Peking,  82. 

San-wang-miao,  162. 

Sao  Yao-pu,  the  poet,  90. 

Sasnofelsy,  Mr.,  214. 

Saxony,  manufactures  of,   49. 

Shakespeare's  Theatre,  Blackfriars, 
217. 

Shanghai :  10  ;  commercial  metro- 
pohs,  70 ;  railway  from,  to 
Wu-sung,  90  ;  145,  160  ;  Yacht 
Club,  177,  188;  return  to, 
193.  203-207,  214,  215. 

Shangpu  or  Board  of  Trade,  105. 

Shans,  195. 

Shan-si,  152. 

Shantung,  birthplace  of  Confucius, 

311- 
Sha-shih,   196. 
She-hung,   162. 


Shen  Pao-chen,  Imperial  Com- 
missioner, 203. 

Shensi,  203. 

Shin-tan,  Telegraph  station  of,  31, 

Shiian-tsung,    Emperor,    220. 

Shu,  Kingdom  of,  164. 

Shu-king,  book  of  history  edited 
by  Confucius,   216. 

Shun-che,  Tartar  conqueror,  200; 
Emperor,   216. 

Shun-king,  159,  160. 

Siao-peh-lu,    road    of,    152. 

Siberia,   survey  of  coast,   212. 

Simon,    M.    Eugene,    289. 

Society  for  Diffusion  of  Western 
Knowledge,  168,  297. 

Socrates  and  Plato,  308. 

Soochow,  1 4. 

Stead,  Mr.,  71. 

Su-chun,   Prince,    201. 

Sui-fu,   168,   169. 

Sui-hsiang,  steamboat,  141. 

Sung  dynasty,  222. 

Sung-p'an,   166. 

Sung  Pao-hwa,  196. 

Su-tung-po,  286. 

"  Swimming  stones,"  35. 

Szechuan  :  2,  10  ;  fertile  lowlands 
of  eastern,  11,  14-23;  mineral 
wealth  and  over-population, 
33,  118,  120,  131,  135,  144; 
viceroy  of,  145,  147  ;  revisited, 
150,  151-166,  290. 


Ta-chien-lu,  17  ;    gold  discovered 

at,   27 ;    pass  of,  94. 
Ta-hio-sze,  201. 
Tai-ho-chen.     161,    162. 
Taiping  :    Wangs  of,  14  ;  rebellion, 

I5j  37.  40  '.   exciting  adventure 

in,    113-115- 
Tai-shan,   Channel  of,    175,    176. 
Tainton,   Mr.   A.   C,   208. 
Taku  :  destruction  of  forts,  58,  207. 
Ta  Lien  Wan,  Bay  of,  102. 
Ta-li-fu,    surrender    of,    12. 
Tang-chia-to,  customs  station,  138. 
Tang   dynasty,    222,    319. 
Tao-chia-tu,  164. 
Ta-peh-lu,   road   of,    152. 
Tartar  and  Mongol  dynasties,  222. 
Tashi-Lama,    Mission    to,    95. 
Ta-shiieh     Shan,    or    great    Snow 

Mountains,  94. 
Tatnall,  Commodore,  58. 
Ta-tsu-hien,  158. 


330 


INDEX 


Ta-tu  river,  i8. 

Teh-chang,  iS. 

Telegraphy,  30,  31,  32. 

Tengri,  210. 

Teng-yueh-chow,  3,  195. 

Tibet,  92-97,  210,  213. 

Tibetan  question,  10. 

Tientsin,   198. 

Ting-tze-ya    (Pavilion  gap),   158. 

Tongking,  212. 

T6  river,  163. 

Trade,  hindrance  to  our,  45, 

Trade-mark,  experience  of  regis- 
tering, 105-110. 

Treaty :  port,  value  of,  34 ;  of 
Nanking,  56  ;  of  peace,  signed, 
59 ;    with  Japan  in   1857,  54. 

Tse-lui-ching,   161,   163. 

Tsgn-Yii-ying,  4,  196. 

Tsing-tao,  299. 

Tso-kia-hsia,   legend   of,    144. 

Tso  T'sung-t'ang,  203. 

Tsung-hng,  159. 

Tsung-li    Yamen,    6-8,    198. 

Tun,   Prince  of,   201. 

Tung-chih,  Emperor,  194,  200, 
201. 

Tung-chow,  78. 

Tung-ting  lake,  24. 

Turkestan,  203. 

Tyler,  Mr.  (Grey  Donald  and  Myers) 
136. 

u 

Uyeno,  Park  of,   167. 


Village  elders,  Powers  of,  114. 
Vladivostock,  207. 

W 

Wade,  Sir  Thomas,  4,  28,  196-198, 

206. 
Wai-wu-pu     Board     of      Foreign 

Affairs,  106. 
Walsham,   Sir   John,   9,    28. 
Wang-se,  patron  saint  of  boatmen, 

149. 


Wan-hien,  140,  14S,  153,  154,  163. 
"  Wan  "  road,  The  great,  152,  154. 
Warren  Hastings,  95. 
Whitewax  insects,  18,  19. 
Wei-hai-wei,  64. 
Wei-yuen,  7. 
Wen-chow,   Port  of,   4. 
Wen-tang   (Chinese  sulphur  bath), 

128-131. 
Wen-ti,  Emperor,  222. 
Wen-wang,  216,  217. 
Witte,    M.,    72. 
Woman,  position  of,  324. 
Wood,  Major  Herbert,  213. 
Woosung,  204-207. 
Wu-hu,  Port  of,  4. 
Wu-shan,   Gorge   of,    120-124,    144, 

147,   151- 
Wu-wang,  Prince,  216. 


Ya-chow,  17. 

Yacoob  Khan,  203. 

Yang,  General,   12. 

Yangchow,  182. 

Yangtse :  2 ;  Steam  Navigation 
Co.,  7,  10,  15,  21,  59,  65,  67  ; 
upper,  134-140  ;  chains  across, 
146,  147,  159,  163,  169,  203  ; 
mud,  206,  211. 

Yangyii-ko,  commander-in-chief,  13. 

Yao-tsa-ho,    difficulties   of,    142. 

Yarkand,  210. 

Yeh  Min-chen,  58. 

Yeh-tan,   144. 

Yii,  Emperor,  144. 

Yii,  great  engineer,  30,  168. 

Yuan,  river,  23. 

Yu-king,  213. 

Yule,  Colonel,  2,  213. 

Yii-man-tze,    158,    160. 

Yung-ch'ang-fu,    195. 

Yung-ho,  Emperor,   76. 

Yunnan  :  viceroy  of,  4  ;  Panthay 
rebellion  in,  11,  12-16  ;  and 
Burmah,  trade  between,  24, 
133.    199.    210,    214,    290. 

Yiin-yang,    City    of,    135. 


BOOKS   BY   MR.   ARCHIBALD    LITTLE. 


THROUGH  THE  YANGTSE  GORGES  or  TRADE  AND 
TRAVEL  IN  WESTERN  CHINA.  By  Archibald  Little. 
Sampson  Low,  Marston  (S-  Co. 

"  All  lovers  of  travellers'  stories  will  be  grateful  to  Mr.  Little's 
friends  for  having  persuaded  him  to  publish  this  brightly  written 
journal.  A  well-written  and  entertaining  account  of  a  most 
interesting  journey." — The  Times. 

"  An  exceedingly  interesting  and  well-written  book." — 
Academy. 

"  A  well  written  and  entertaining  account  of  a  most  interesting 
journey." — Morning  Post. 

"  Over  all  there  is  an  atmosphere  of  sunny  life  and  freshness 
which  makes  the  book  readable  from  the  first  page  to  the  last." — 
Spectator. 

"  We  shall  always  be  grateful  to  the  gorges  of  the  Yangtse  for 
being  the  provoking  cause  of  the  appearance  of  this  work." — 
Athencsum. 

"  Mr.  Little  is  a  man  of  strong  and  well-trained  intellect,  an 
acute  observer,  possessing  a  sufficient  acquaintance  with  physical 
science,  geology,  ethics,  history,  and  commercial  and  social 
movements,  to  render  his  pages  accurate  and  comprehensible. 
His  style  of  writing  is  admirably  succinct,  and  he  has  the  advan- 
tage of  being  an  excellent  practical  monologue." — The  Chinese 
Times. 

Third  Edition. 

"  To  this  profoundly  interesting  work  the  author  has  been 
enabled  to  add  an  account  of  the  first  ascent  of  the  Yangtse 
rapids  by  steam,  which  he  made  at  the  beginning  of  the  present 
year. ' ' — -Guardian. 

"  This  is  a  third  edition  ;  but  the  circumstances  and  value  of 
the  book  are  such  that  we  should  be  justified  in  treating  it  as  a 
new  one,  even  if  it  contained  no  new  matter,  which  is  far  from 
being  the  ca*se." — Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

331 


Books  by  Mr.   Archibald  Little — continued. 

"  Few  men  living  know  more  about  China  than  Mr.  Archibald 
Little,  and  his  work  '  Through  the  Yangtse  Gorges/  now  in  its 
third  edition,  must  have  educated  a  vast  number  of  people." — 
Si.  James'  Budget. 

MOUNT  OMI  AND  BEYOND.     By  Archibald  Little.  Illus- 
trated.    London,  Heinemann.     i6s. 

"  The  human  touch,  friendly,  tolerant,  sagacious,  is  felt 
throughout  Mr.  Little's  handsomely  produced  record  of  travels." 
— The  Outlook. 

"  A  book  like  Mr.  Little's  draws  the  Chinaman  again  for  us. 
and  how  he  is  that  wonderful  being  a  man  with  the  divine  spark 
unobliterated  by  his  density — A  very  pleasant  book." — The 
A  cademy. 

"  A  lively  description  of  a  walking  tour  made  by  his  wife  and 
himself.  Not  only  full  of  interest  for  the  general  reader  but  also 
instructive  to  those  who  value  the  observations  of  a  traveller 
qualified  by  long  residence  to  understand  and  appreciate  the  people 
amongst  whom  he  wanders." — Athenczimi. 

"  The  author's  agreeable  manner  and  his  vivid  pictures  of  the 
least  known  aspects  of  Chinese  life  will  not  fail  to  win  for  him 
many  readers  and  an  abundance  of  praise." — Daily  Graphic. 

"  Mr.  Little  has  skill,  he  has  humour  too,  and  good  humour  ; 
and,  in  addition,  the  faculty  of  selection — his  account  is  extremely 
^ood  and  informing  reading." — The  Bookman. 

"  Mr.  Little  has  qualifications  possessed  by  few  Englishmen  for 
writing  about  la  vie  iniime  of  the  Chinese.  If  anything  can  help 
us  to  realise  this  Mr.  Little's  book  will  do  so." — The  Times. 

"  The  book  is  interesting  throughout  and  not  the  least  value  of 
it  is  the  vista  which  it  opens  up  of  future  economic  possibilities 
in  that  teeming  Eastern  region,  the  Yangtse  basin." — Nature. 

"  Whatever  Mr.  Little  writes  about  China  has  value,  as  the 
testimony  of  a  man  thoroughly  conversant  with  Chinese  life, 
and  as  bearing  on  a  country  which  occupies  so  much  of  the  world's 
attention. ' ' — Spectator. 

"  Marked  by  the  same  gift  of  observation,  the  same 
facility  in  description  and  expression,  the  same  intimate 
knowledge  of  Chinese  life  and  character  as  his  former  travel  book, 
'  Through  the  Yangtse  Gorges.'  ■" — Daily  Chronicle. 

"  To  persons  who  may  contemplate  following  in  Mr.  Little's  foot- 
steps the  information  this  book  contains  will  prove  invaluable." 
— Field. 

"  This  delightful  hook."— Pall  Mall  Gazette. 

"  This  very  instructive  and  readable  volume." — Asiatic 
Quarterly  Review. 

"  The  author's  style  is  bright  and  crisp.  He  writes  entertain- 
ingly. The  author  felt  forcibly  the  harmony  of  Chinese  towns 
and  hamlets  with  surrounding  nature." — The  Nation. 

"  Decidedly  one  of  the  most  enjoyable  of  travel  books  of  recent 
times." — St.  James'  Gazette. 

332 


Books  by  Mr.  Archibald   Little — continued. 

THE  FAR  EAST.     By  Archibald  Little.     Author  of  "  Through 
the  Yangtse  Gorges."     7s.  6d.  net.     The  Clarendon  Press. 

"  Mr.  Little's  knowledge  of  the  Chinese  language  and  people,  of 
their  literature  and  history,  and  experience  gained  by  extended 
travel  qualify  him  exceptionally  for  the  task  which  Mr.  MacKinder 
has  persuaded  him  to  undertake." — The  Times. 

"  If  not  technically  a  geographical  expert,  Mr.  Little  possesses 
quite  enough  scientific  knowledge  to  enable  him  to  deal  intelli- 
gently with  the  problems  at  issue  ;  while  his  personal  knowledge 
of  the  region  and  people  enables  him  to  infuse  into  his  descrip- 
tions the  special  interest  at  which  the  Regions  of  the  World  Series 
aims." — Saturday  Review. 

"  This  important  and  authoritative  survey  of  the  geography, 
historj',  position,  and  outlook  of  more  than  half,  and  that  by  far 
the  more  interesting  half,  of  the  Asiatic  continent.  The  style  of 
the  book  is  everywhere  lucid,  its  thought  is  everywhere  original  and 
stimulating,  and  even  the  dry  geographical  details  are  vivified 
by  their  connection  with  human  history." — Athencsiim. 

"  To  compress  this  into  a  volume  of  reasonable  size  and  yet  to 
give  a  comprehensive  account  of  each  province  is  a  difficult  task, 
but  Mr.  Little's  apology  in  his  preface  is  unnecessary.  We 
congratulate  him  on  having  given  us  a  most  readable  volume, 
full  of  information,  and  yet  with  that  local  colouring  which  is 
an  essential  for  a  book  to  command  the  attention  of  the  general 
reading  public." — Nature. 

"  A  task  of  extraordinary  difficulty  but  one  which  Mr.  Little 
was  singularly  qualified  to  perform.  A  serious  book,  full  of 
information  and  personal  knowledge,  probably  giving  us  a 
finer  insight  into  the  condition  of  modern  China  and  all  her  huge 
provinces  than  anything  yet  published." — Daily  Chronicle. 

"  Mr.  Little's  personal  knowledge  of  these  Oriental  countries, 
derived  from  the  experience  of  long  years  of  travel,  and  from  a 
familiarity  with  the  languages  spoken  there  is  reflected  in  his  book 
by  qualities  more  valuable  than  anything  merely  academic ; 
while  within  its  self-imposed  limits,  the  book  is  never  at  all 
wanting  in  the  virtues  of  good  order  and  lucidity  in  expression." 
— The  Scotsman. 

"  Whilst  Mr.  Little  has  necessarily  to  be  brief  to  bring  so  compre- 
hensive a  subject  into  one  volume,  he  never  gives  the  impression 
of  tenseness,  nor  that  he  has  clipped  his  material." — London  and 
China  Telegraphs. 

''  The  book  supplies  abundance  of  information,  and  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  geographical  features  of  the  huge  area  dealt  with  is 
full  and  accurate." — The  Guardian. 

"  The  entire  book  is  a  capital  illustration  of  what  may  be 
accomplished  by  judicious  condensation.  Every  sentence  counts.'* 
— The  Literary  Digest. 

"  A  most  comprehensive  and  scholarly  work  written  by  one 
who  has  a  lifelong  knowledge  of  the  Far  East,  and  is,  in  addition, 
an  accomplished  geographer.     Certainly  to  all  students  of  the 

333 


Books  by  Mr.  Archibald  Little — continued. 

question  this  work  will  form  a  most  complete  and  useful  introduc- 
tion."— Spectator. 

"  Mr.  Little  has  been  identified  with  the  Far  East  since  early 
manhood." — New  York  Times. 

"  With  a  full  index,  this  is  a  first-class  work  of  reference."  —The 
Nation. 

ACROSS   YUNNAN:    A    JOURNEY    OF    SURPRISES.     By 
Archibald  Little.     Sampson  Low,  Marston  &■  Co. 

"  Mr.  Little  has  left  on  record  that,  although  he  had  read  almost 
every  thing  written  about  and  around  the  region,  he  found 
Yunnan,  on  visiting  it,  quite  different  from  his  anticipations  ; 
and  if  that  were  the  case  with  one  so  well  informed,  the  ordinary 
reader  may  well  read  with  surprise  of  the  picturesque  scenery, 
the  flora,  the  health-giving  air  which  are  here  described  with 
keenly  appreciative  enjoyment.  .  .  .  Displays  the  power  of 
description  seasoned  by  knowledge  with  which  '  The  Yangtse 
Gorges '  and  '  Mount  Omi  '  have  familiarised  us.  The  book 
appears  to  be  well  indexed,  and  contains  pleasing  illustrations." 
— Saturday  Review. 

"  The  last  of  Mr.  Little's  valuable  contributions  to  geographical 
knowledge — the  letters  descriptive  of  the  journey,  of  the  country 
passed  through,  and  of  the  inhabitants,  with  their  manner  of  life, 
etc.,  are  interesting  throughout.  Not  the  least  so  is  the  last 
(Part  IV.),  which  contains  the  journey  from  Tonking  to  Hong- 
kong, and  has  to  do  with  part  of  French  Indo-China." — 
Spectator. 

"  Mr.  Little  had  a  very  long  experience  of  China,  and  travelled 
extensively,  so  that  his  knowledge  of  the  country  and  its  people 
was  deeper  and  more  intimate  than  that  usually  possessed  by 
the  resident  in  Treaty  Ports.  A  very  pleasantly  written  account 
of  the  travels  of  the  author  and  his  wife  through  a  most  interesting 
and  picturesque  country." — Geographical  Journal. 

"  So  long  has  Mr.  Archibald  Little  been  acknowledged  as  an 
authority  upon  China  that  his  posthumous  work  '  Across  Yunnan,' 
edited  by  Mrs.  Little,  is  sure  to  command  attention.  The  new 
book  is  interestingly  illustrated." — Commercial  Intelligence. 

"  The  work  of  an  observant  traveller  and  excellent  writer.  It 
includes  among  other  interesting  matter,  an  account  of  the 
new  French  railroad,  now  completed  to  Yunnanfu.  '  A  Journey 
of  Surprises  '  the  book  is  well  called." — Westminster  Gazette. 

"  Descriptive  of  his  experiences  in  a  little  known  but  highly 
important  province  of  the  Chinese  Empire.  A  very  pleasing 
description  is  given  of  the  French  colony  of  Indo-China,  and 
particularly  of  its  capital,  Hanoi." — Morning  Post. 

"  The  picture  of  Yunnan,  as  Mr.  Little  drew  it,  is  very  charm- 
ing."— Daily  Mail. 

"  The  series  of  letters  in  which  that  distinguished  Far  Eastern 
traveller,  the  late  Mr.  Archibald  Little,  recorded  his  observations 
and  impressions  of  a  journey  Across  Yunnan,  should  be  read  with 
attention  by  every  Englishman  who  takes  an  intelligent  interest 

334 


Books  by  Mr.  Archibald  Little — continued. 

in  the  future  of  China — that  most  absorbing  of  all  Far  Eastern 
problems. ' ' — I  Vorld. 

"  The  late  Mr.  Archibald  Little  had  seen  much  of  China, 
travelled  far  in  it,  and  he  had  the  faculty,  as  it  were,  of  conveying 
its  atmosphere  and  colour  in  his  talk.  The  same  is  apparent  again 
in  this  posthumous  volume  of  his  '  freshly  written  impressions.'  " 
— New  York  Herald. 

"  A  graphic  series  of  letters,  describing  as  they  do  not  only  the 
natural  resources  of  the  district  and  the  manners  and  customs  of 
its  people,  but  dwelling  on  the  many  and  remarkable  natural 
beauties  of  the  province,  the  birds  and  flowers,  the  waterways, 
in  particular  the  mysterious  Red  River  that  runs  out  at  Man- 
hao,  '  the  death  port '  and  the  beautiful  '  Swallow '  and  stalactite 
caves  of  the  plateau." — T.  P.'s  Weekly. 

"  Few  Englishmen  have  known  China  more  intimately  than  the 
late  Mr.  Archibald  Little  ;  it  is  not  surprising  therefore  that 
his  first-hand  account  of  the  little-known  province  of  Yunnan 
should  differ  materially  from  the  descriptions  of  more  superficial 
travellers. ' ' — Outlook . 

"If,  however,  the  author  wrote  rather  as  a  descriptive  journalist 
than  as  an  ethnologist,  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  he  wrote  as  a 
skilled  and  practical  journalist.  His  style  is  bright  and  vivid, 
and  the  interest  never  flags.  Moreover  he  possesses  a  certain 
ease  and  spontaneity  which  frequently  remind  us  of  the  late  Mr. 
Lawrence  Oliphant." — Armchair  Travel. 

"  The  account  of  the  French  railway  from  Yunnanfu  to  Tong- 
king  is  exceptionally  interesting.  Persons  not  familiar  with  the 
incidents  of  travel  in  the  interior  of  China  may  safely  accept  all  the 
vivid  descriptions  and  pictures  as  genuinely  characteristic.  This 
pleasant  little  work — full  of  interest." — Manchester  Guardian. 

"  To  judge  from  what  Mr.  Little  writes  of  it,  Yunnan  must, 
as  regards  climate,  be  a  veritable  earthly  Paradise." — Glasgow 
Herald. 

"The  description  of  the  country  would  lead  us  to  the  conclusion 
that  it  must  be  extremely  interesting  to  visit,  and  often,  with  its 
variety  of  wild  flowers,  its  trees,  and  cultivation,  very  beautiful." 
— Review  of  Reviews. 

"  The  story  of  this  journey  is  admirably  told,  and  rendered  all 
the  more  attractive  by  a  series  of  well  chosen  photographs." — 
Nature. 

"  A  vivid  and  admirably  suggestive  piece  of  work." — Bookman. 


335 


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